[OPENING] magical training log

[spellslash]

Who: Brie, whichever newbies want to show up.
Where: The beach.
When: Day 4
Open/Closed: OTA

[It's about noon on the island, based on the position of the sun. The newbies have had a few days to settle in, but that doesn't mean they've fully mastered their newfound abilities.

As much stock as Genette puts into telepathy, Brie is more concerned about their other newfound gifts. She's aggressively tried to wrangle as many newbies as possible onto the sandy shores of the beachfront area for some magic practice.

She's got a list of everyone's magic -- only a few vague notes, limitations are for you to discover -- and she's handing out missions for magic training. If you want to participate? Feel free. If you don't? Suit yourself.

But understanding your magic isn't just an activity that benefits the group. Learning your magic's abilities may be what stands between you and survival, which is something she makes perfectly clear.]

Comments

[rebells]

Don't touch me.

[As if to emphasize the point, he scoots backwards.]

[sundays]

Mm, but...

[He looks sincerely uncertain there, tilting his head.]

Are we not meant to be comrades and allies....?

[rebells]

Supposedly.

[A sigh. Jay looks distinctly irritated at something or other--'why me,' his expression seems to say--to an extent that can't entirely be accounted for by random strangers asking to touch him. His hands are folded into his sleeves, as if to emphasize that he absolutely, positively does not want to be touched or touching anyone else, ever.

Strange.]

I presume this has something to do with the assignments we were given. Find someone else.

[sundays]

[and now it's chiaki's turn to ask - ]

But why?

Do you bruise easily? I promise that I will not touch you too roughly! It'll be light, like a feather's touch!

[rebells]

[He takes another step back.]

No.

[sundays]

[Chiaki takes a step forward.

Tilting his head curiously.]

... A case of extreme shyness....?

[rebells]

[He scoots back again. We can keep doing this all day, Chiaki.]

It's none of your business and no.

[sundays]

[well yeah

he's gonna keep doing this all day

because he doesn't understand why his new friend keeps moving back, they can't have a conversation like this!]

Isn't it though? If something ails you, I'd like to assist! That's what new friends and comrades are meant to do!

[rebells]

[The thing is, it's been a long few days. He's been trying his best to push it down, to not think about it, but the shadow of what he did before coming here looms large. He delivered Shirley into the hands of people who are going to use her for their own power--he delivered her into Solon's hands, and he knows exactly what kind of sadistic maniac Solon is. He destroyed--everything; the fragile peace they'd worked so hard to win on the Legacy, the trust of people he was beginning to think of as friends, the life he'd built up over the course of six years.

He didn't have a choice. He didn't; he keeps telling himself that he didn't. But the guilt and grief and overwhelming hopelessness are still there, and now he's--in this unfamiliar world, imprisoned by dint of an unfamiliar power, being told that his survival depends on mastering a power that involves sharing his emotions with other people, when he can't stand doing that in the best of times. It very well might! He can think of four or five different ways that could be useful!

He should be practicing it, which just makes everything worse, because he hates the entire idea of his power, and on top of that there's this obnoxiously cheerful person asking to touch him, and going on and on about friends, and--Jay doesn't make friends easily or lightly.

He's just horribly betrayed most of his.

This is all a very, very long way of saying--this is the moment when he snaps.]

We're not--friends, so--so stop saying that and get away from me--

[And he reaches out and pushes Chiaki away, without really thinking about it, and, well. Jay's power, the one he has not been practicing controlling because fuck his life, is the ability to project his emotions onto people he touches.

So, uh, Chiaki is probably getting a faceful of really, really wretched feelings right about now.]

[sundays]

[Ironically, despite his overly friendly and excitable nature, Chiaki knows wretched feelings.

They'd been drowned out in the excitement to be a hero these past few days - but there's the lingering uncertainty. What can he do alone? What if he were to mess everything up? What if it were all to be proven that he's really not meant to be a hero after all? The guilt takes those thoughts, amplifies them, swirls them up into something dark and all-encompassing that manages to get him to stumble, knocks him right off his feet.

The feelings capture his heart, stun him for a moment as he blinks through them and - shamefully - rims his eyes with the threat of tears.]

I...?

[His voice is softer, less certain even as he automatically reaches to wipe at his eyes with the bank of his hand before blinking up at Jay from his place on the ground.]

... or you? Was that...

[Was that you?]

[rebells]

[Jay stands above him, looking down at Chiaki in--lingering anger, sure, but more and more a dawning oh-I-have-touch-feelings-powers kind of horror. He didn't mean to do that. He really didn't mean to do that.

Did he actually use his power?

He looks at his own hands--he's not quite sure; he can't really tell when it goes off--but that reaction doesn't just seem like someone's reaction to being pushed.

Shit.]

I--that--

[He's not entirely sure what to do. Instinct, at least the kind of instinct that led him to push Chiaki away in the first place, tells him to play it off, or even run. (He doesn't run. He's kind of rooted to the spot.]

That's--not any of your business.

[sundays]

Mm? But we're— ["Friends" seems to be a difficult word... right? It resounds in Chiaki's heart, so sure that he's already friends with this stranger, but at the risk of upsetting him again... he refrains.]

We're comrades and I'm worried about you.

[There's really no filter to be found here... There's a brief wince as he wipes at his eyes again and oh god there's sand - but then he focuses and looks back up at Jay with a too trusting and open gaze. That's Chiaki's best way for meeting people where they are.]

Are you okay?

[rebells]

[That expression. He can't deal with the sheer sincerity of it, especially not from someone he doesn't know, who has no idea about who he is or what he's done or what kind of--person--he is. Jay's not an open or trusting sort of person. He turns away, staring hard at the ground.

He's fine, anyway. He just has to remember how to--control--his emotions.]

There's nothing for you to be worried about. [It comes out irritable, snappish. Whatever lingering traces of turmoil were in his expression are gone now, as his gaze ices over.] Now, if you'll excuse me--

[And he turns to leave.]

[sundays]

Ah, wait...!!

[AND HE'S SCRAMBLING TO HIS FEET but at least he doesn't actually follow after. He's a little dauntless - and he doesn't exactly want to keep pushing Jay away but....]

D-Don't forget, my friend! You're not alone here... I'll always be on your side!

[Probably odd words coming from a stranger - but there's at least no doubt that Chiaki believes in them with all his heart.]

[rebells]

[Someone is hightailing it out of there on the double. Not because of anything Chiaki said, of course. Certainly not because it reminds him painfully of people he left behind--in more ways than one--on his world. Not at all.

(Fuck.)]