[Deleted]

WORDS: 367

TAGS: OPEN

The following days had been lived with one sole purpose: to regain some form of normalcy. A few personal tests of her resistance and seeing her back glow like a bar sign had been enough to freak her out on Day 1 after everyone had left. Mason and Alice had both departed from the apartment after the first night though she kept an open invitation for them to stay when they needed til the dust settled. Her offer was genuine, but she couldn't ignore that it felt somewhat comforting to have no one but herself to look after. It enabled her to try and 'rewind' everything that'd happened. To make it all go away.

While the others were either still looking for answers or experimenting with their new lifestyles, Claire had gone out to get a replacement phone, a temporary rental car that almost looked like her recently totaled sedan, and cleaned every speck of her apartment even as far as washing the blankets and sheets everyone had used when they stayed over. It was like it never happened. Her father understood that she needed time to put everything back together before finding another flight home; he'd been kept up-to-date with how she was, the damages done financially and mentally. She attributed her intense high stress to being a lucky, unscathed survivor - which wasn't very far at all from the truth.. it was just missing details.

Claire had gone out with her new transportation to do some much needed kitchen restocking of basic things that normal people had in their cabinets and fridges. It was a bit embarrassing when Alice had looked around to find.. mustard.. bread.. and other random things. Not only had she gone to the grocery store, but she'd stopped by the art supplier as well to grab a few pieces of hand-pressed canvas and powder charcoal as a little treat to herself. Today would be a drawing day. She had no idea what to draw.. but she was determined. First thing was first, she was still removing groceries from the bags into proper places around the kitchen she hardly used. Strangely satisfying.

NOTES: Back to reality.
WEARING: Here.

＃ENY ADOXOGRAPHY

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Mason Warner + Claire Elliot

Alice rapped gently on the door, before pushing it open. Like the text had said, it wasn’t locked, and she let herself into Claire’s apartment. “Hey, you in Claire?” She stepped into the apartment, holding the door open so that Mason could follow her. He couldn’t exactly take public transport, so she’d had to loiter awkwardly in the door of buses as Mason got on. It had granted her more than one dirty look and even abusive language from other passengers and one bus driver. They’d made it here in one piece though, with little more than bruised pride. It was strange to be back here, considering the last time they’d been in this apartment she’d been powerless and Mason had only just turned invisible. Now… well, Mason was still invisible, but Alice had a power of her own now. She shrugged her bag off beside the door, then bounced further into the room. Not quite literally. She didn’t seem to have any charge left, not that she could tell anyway, she was still looking forward to demonstrating her new found abilities though. She’d just need to find a way to do so. “Claire! Claire! I need to show you what I can do!”

© seadra of gs

[Mason Warner]

Stress Fracture

Fidgeting with the bat concealed in his jacket, Mason followed Alice into the cosy apartment. He’d been eagerly discussing with Alice how best to demonstrate her new power and his invisibility had been a real roadblock. Seeing her take a punch from a visible person was a lot more dramatic and impressive… and obvious as to what was going on. However, Mason had a baseball bat from years ago that he’d kept under the illusion that he might one day need it and – suddenly – a plan was born.

He was fidgeting through nervous energy, still hyped on the bizarre adrenaline rush that accompanied sneaking onto buses. Not having to pay was a nice bonus, but making sure that the doors weren’t closed on him and that nobody brushed or bumped into him was certainly a challenge that was not without its risks. Consequently he was even more excited than he would have been normally about introducing Claire to Alice’s ability and inviting her to join their super team.

There was a noticeable bump in the weird field around him – which he was now certain provided the mechanism for his ability – where the bat was hidden. It was still invisible according to Alice so the power must have automatically stretched to accommodate this foreign object. He felt tantalisingly close to unlocking his power’s secrets and yet still as hopelessly confused as ever.

“You gotta see it,” he said in agreement, before realising that Claire might not be aware of his presence. He surveyed her kingdom of grocery bags and …art stuff? with a fond smile on his face. It suggested she planned on sticking around in San Francisco for a little bit more, which was nice. Plus, he found her arty side just so cool. He waved and cleared his throat. “ I’m here too, by the way. Sup, Bod-Mod?”

He grinned to himself. That one rhymed and everything, there was no way she couldn’t love it.

“You really, really gotta see it!” he emphasised. Without even taking a breath, he turned to Alice, the excitement radiating from every pore. “Can we do it now?”

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[Deleted]

WORDS: 356

TAGS: OPEN

To keep herself from being too shocked in the future, she had told Alice and Mason that they were more than welcome to come over while they were still gathering their lives after the crash. The door was always unlocked while she was home unless she was headed to bed. When she heard it crack open after the small knock, she was reaching up into a shelf to put away a box of cereal. "Yeah," she half-called from the kitchen.

As the cereal slid into place, Claire turned around to be met with none other than Alice's beaming face as the girl practically bounced into her apartment like an overly-excited pinball. "Woah, hello," she greeted with a rather overwhelmed smile at how much energy Alice seemed to have. Then she explained her joy. It seemed that Alice had been changed like the rest of them after all... And here Claire was hoping to get her normal, uneventful life back on track.

It was hard to be upset. She didn't want to show it in front of the girl who'd been so put-out about not getting any kind of ability. Claire would've gladly traded places with her and she had a feeling that had been pretty easy to tell. "Oh, cool.. You got something too then?" she smirked softly, at least it was easy to catch Alice's contagious optimism. 

"You gotta see it."
"GEEZ!"

Claire flinched and put a hand to her heart to catch her breath. "Scared me.." Bod-Mod? Oh man. It was getting bad again. Her face turned towards his direction with a playfully disapproving expression. "Well I'm, uh, visible," she motioned towards where he was with a worrisome scrunch of her mouth. It was troubling that he still hadn't come out of whatever he was stuck in and couldn't help but fret over how he was holding up with all that. 

"Now? Woah, wait, okay hold on," she put her hands up in surrender and pointed a thumb over her shoulder while walking backwards, "Can I finish groceries?" So much for a normal day.

NOTES: Or not..
WEARING: Here.

＃ENY ADOXOGRAPHY

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Claire Elliot + Mason Warner

“Awwwwww…” Alice sounded disappointed, which she was, to be fair. After all it had been in this apartment that she first thought everyone was going to get a power but her. She’d been looking forward to showing Claire exactly what she could do. That and she was pretty sure she’d worked out what exactly it was she could. Or she at least had an idea. She’d spent most of the last few days working in the diner, practising with her new power, and obsessively reading every comic book she could get her hands on. Mostly it had been dead ends, enjoyable dead ends, but not all that informative. Till she stumbled across a comic Steven had given her a couple of years ago for her birthday. It wasn’t a particularly rare one, but it was fairly old. ‘Uncanny X-Men #129’. There was a character there, a villain who could take any amount of physical damage and convert it into strength and speed. It wasn’t an exact parallel, but it was close enough for her to read deeper. Sebastian Shaw absorbed kinetic energy, the energy of motion. Alice absorbed something when somebody tried to hit her. It made sense that it would be kinetic energy. She’d experimented with a hot pan at home, and sure enough her finger had been burned. Drop the same pan on her hand though, and nothing. It had to be kinetic energy. She flung herself onto the couch, pulling a face, “I guess we can wait.” She seemed every inch the sullen teenager, which was appropriate, as she was. “At least you can live on more than just pancakes for the next couple of days then. Unless all you bought was maple syrup?” She sprang up and bounced into the kitchen. Eager to be useful, she helped Claire unpack what was left of her shopping, putting it away at the older girl’s direction. “Noooowww can we show you?”

© seadra of gs

[Mason Warner]

Stress Fracture

The bat remained hidden, practically begging to be used, in the safety of Mason’s jacket.

To his dismay, Claire was not jumping straight to their level of enthusiasm. Prioritising groceries? Pfft. She was missing out, but he was sure that it wouldn’t be long before their demonstration could go ahead. Alice was far more obvious about her disappointment, dramatically throwing herself onto the sofa like a little kid who’d just been grounded. He couldn’t help but chuckle softly at her display.

Also to his dismay, ‘Bod-Mod’ was shot down completely. Jeez, this girl was hard to please. He’d been so sure that Tats was at least somewhere down the right line of thinking. Maybe he needed to scrub up on his tattooist lingo.

“I didn’t know you were capable of buying fresh ingredients,” Mason said teasingly, holding up an apple and tossing it lightly into the air before placing it with the other fruit.

He was restricted to the use of one arm but they still managed a solid team effort of putting the groceries away. Mason even managed to hold back from teasing Claire further about her newly stocked cupboards. After all, she’d been so generous in letting them stay and making sure they could drop in if they needed – he didn’t want to embarrass her for her hosting skills.

As soon as they had finished, Alice immediately demanded to show Claire what she could do.

Mason’s fingers twitched.

Before Claire could get a word in, Mason whipped out the bat and swung it round his head in a couple of swift, cautionary circles. He wasn’t sure how Alice’s power worked but he wanted her to have some warning of the incoming impact, just in case she needed to activate it consciously. He decided to make sure her attention was fully captured by letting out a wordless war-cry, garbled by an excited, childish laugh.

Then, still yelling, Mason brought the bat sailing down straight for the top of Alice’s head.

ψ

[Deleted]

WORDS: 387

TAGS: OPEN

"Oh, come on, don't give me that.." she watched as Alice trudged around the small living area to flop onto the couch, a hand coming up to Claire's hip in an almost pseudo-motherly fashion. The pouting was kind of cute honestly. "I thought it'd be nice," she explained as she turned around to the kitchen and began to sift through the groceries again, "I mean.. if you guys wanted to hang around still until things settle down. Just to have lots of different things to make. And I've gotten really hungry recently.." Now that her body actually processed sugar. Yeah, bread and mustard wasn't going to cut it.

Claire had wanted to be upset when the two came in. She wanted to see it as a distraction from the normal world she was trying to rebuild.. but damn if their positivism wasn't so contagious. "I've got lots of things to put on pancakes now in case you want to chef it up again," she smiled kindly over to Alice as they put things away side-by-side. "I didn’t know you were capable of buying fresh ingredients," Mason chimed in as a few floating objects made their ways into the fridge. "One of my many surprises," she joked back. Since when had she become so openly playful? It was kind of a nice feeling..

"Fine, fine," she chuckled, closing the cabinet to the last of the groceries that got put away when Alice went begging again. It was hard not to be excited for her - regardless of whether or not her head kept telling her heart to wake the hell up and smell the roses. "Let's see what you've g-," cue the barbarian yell. Claire saw the levitating bat and braced herself against the counter, taking a step back as a flinch and then-- just.. watched Alice stand there. Just stand there.

It was quiet for a while and Claire realized she hadn't even blinked let alone said anything. Oh, right, exhale. That was a thing. "That.." her face remained shocked, straight, and she took a step closer to Alice slowly while looking her up and down, "..was amazing!" she couldn't help but smile and cover her mouth halfway with a hand. "Wow, Alice, that's incredible.. And you're okay?"

NOTES:
WEARING: Here.

＃ENY ADOXOGRAPHY

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Mason Warner + Claire Elliot

The bat plummeted down towards Alice’s unprotected skull. It was moving fast, so fast that it should have caused serious head injury, but when it hit, it simply stopped. It was as if Mason had moved it at a snail’s pace to simply rest it on top of her head. She felt the energy rush from the bat into her system, beginning to fill her body with its enthusiastic vibrations. Claire looked just as amazed as Alice had hoped she would. After all, Alice should have been on the floor with a broken skull right about now, not standing proudly with her hands on her hips and an enormous grin. “Isn’t it! I didn’t feel a thing, well, I did, but it doesn’t hurt at all.” She dropped her head forwards so that Claire could see exactly how unaffected she was. The hair wasn’t even ruffled, not that it had been particularly neat in the first place. Blood and fragments of skull entirely failed to appear. “It’s like I absorb the energy from the bat, or a punch, or even falling down the stairs. I can even send it back!” She looked around the kitchen, looking to see if there was anything she could do it to. It might be tricky though, she didn’t seem to have any sort of brake system. She had to instantly go a hundred miles an hour. Mason had hit her pretty hard, and if she put that energy into something else, it might put it through the wall or something. Somehow she didn’t think Claire would be too happy if she started trashing her apartment. “It’s not like Dom though. I have to like… fire all of it at once. I don’t know if I can limit it or anything.” Alice leaned against the counter, her excitement undiminished “so did you find out exactly how yours works?”

© seadra of gs

[Mason Warner]

Stress Fracture

“Hang around until things settle down? Don’t think you can get rid of us so easily,” Mason chuckled.

Claire was in a pleasantly good mood – much more relaxed than she had been in the direct aftermath of the accident. There had been sprinkles of her more playful side before, but it was on a whole new level now that she seemed less on edge. Maybe she was just infected by the overwhelming unit of enthusiasm that was Alice-and-Mason-with-a-bat. Or maybe she was starting to think of them as friends. He smiled to himself. He hoped so.

Even though he had been 100% certain that he was not about to kill Alice Morrow, there was still a huge feeling of relief as the bat jolted to a halt. Alice’s proud grin was well-deserved – Mason was wearing one too, after all. They’d achieved the objective of their mission by impressing Claire, surprising her without freaking her out entirely, it seemed. She’d reacted even better than he’d imagined considering how poorly she’d dealt with her own power activation. Maybe she was coming around to the idea of embracing her super abilities after all.

Mason laid the bat down on the counter, its purpose served.

“She absolutely shredded a shelving unit,” Mason said proudly. “It was awesome.”

He watched Claire nervously to gauge her response as Alice brought up her power. Being accepted, excited, in awe of somebody else’s power was a whole lot different to coming to terms with your own power. He knew that all too well.

“Does it feel like aluminum foil?” he asked hopefully, stepping carefully away from Alice in case she unleashed a super punch on him for that one.

He sniggered to himself. Would he regret those as his last words? Probably not. Once the class clown, always the class clown.

ψ

[Deleted]

WORDS: 304

TAGS: OPEN

Absorbing energy? Like some kind of.. sponge? "Woah.." she let her hand drape down from the side of the counter when Mason set the bat down and Alice explained how the feeling of force just somehow sunk into her rather than shoved at her. "Send it back?" she repeated in-question and then looked in the direction Mason might've been in as he spoke of the poor shelving unit that got in her way. 

"All at once.. Well, small kitchen so-," she whirled a slow finger around to motion to the space around them, "-maybe we'll find somewhere not here." An invitation to see it as opposed to shoving it away and hiding from it. Alice was so excited and happy, it was too hard to deny her. She was still wearing a little smile when the topic of conversation quickly turned to Claire and her newfound abilities. It stayed for while - obviously a little hard with how she felt about the subject - and she blinked it away. "Uh, no, not like foil heh.. What's that about?"

Claire turned to the sink and reached her hands in to give them a quick wash. "I did kinda find out a few new things," she leaned down, drying her hands on a towel that was hung on a cabinet door below. If she was asked she'd explain more, but was honestly more concerned about Mason's lack of discovery. "Not you though, Mason? Can't turn it off yet?.." It was another reminder to count her blessings. It could be much, much worse. The poor man.. "If it's easier to stay here instead of trying to duck around everyone, the couch is always open. Classes are over, so I don't mind going out and getting something if you need it."

NOTES: Lending a hand.
WEARING: Here.

＃ENY ADOXOGRAPHY

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Mason Warner + Claire Elliot + Wearing

“Well yeah… I didn’t mean here.” Despite that, Alice’s mood showed no sign of dropping, especially when Claire said that she’d discovered a few new things about her power. It was difficult for Alice to imagine anyone not being amazed and excited by their powers, and the idea that pushing Claire about hers might upset her had simply not occurred to the blue haired electron that was currently bouncing about her apartment. “Ugh no… you have no idea, he’s been making up the worst descriptions for powers, he wanted us to call him saran-man. Whatever you do don’t let him choose your name!” She couldn’t resist asking about Claire’s experimentation though, “You have to tell us what you found out? What else can you do? Are you super strong?” She gasped as if at a sudden realisation, “Can you fly?” She would have kept going, but was reminded of Mason’s dilemma. That at least cooled her passion a little. Mason’s life had changed. He’d told her he was fine just working from home but she knew it had been a bit awkward for him. “Yeah that’s right, and I can come help you out when I’m not at work too… if uh… if you want me too.” She shrugged, attempting to conceal her enthusiasm, “I could bring over my PS2, we could play Mortal Kombat or something…”

© seadra of gs

[Mason Warner]

Stress Fracture

“We should find somewhere else, PQ’s firepower can be pretty damn impressive - you have to see it to believe it, and even then it’s hard to believe your own eyes,” Mason said eagerly. He surveyed the space, wondering regretfully if maybe he shouldn’t have hit Alice quite so hard that they could have demonstrated both sides to her ability right here and now.

“Do you know about Dom’s warehouse? It’s awesome, the perfect space. That’s where we first discovered Alice’s power in all its shelf-destroying beauty.” He left the ambiguous suggestion there, not wanting to rush straight out of Claire’s place just yet.

Alice continued to mock Saran-Man, which was rude. “Hey! I’ve been brain-storming…” He’d started to think of his own name, watching every action and sci-fi movie he could find in his DVD collection, and was beginning to narrow his choices down… He was letting them digest currently, waiting for the perfect superhero identity to reveal itself. It was hard to think of anything for Alice at all considering how little he really understood about her power and everything he tried to think of for Dominic felt uninspired. Maybe he’d spent a little too much time studying electrical system components.

Mason was delighted that Claire hadn’t closed off instantly at the mention of her powers. She’d even been experimenting! Or, at least, her power had been demonstrating itself.

“Yeah, what ‘new things’ are these?” Man, it would be cool if she could fly.

He smiled at the offers of assistance. “Nah, doesn’t seem like it wants to turn off yet, but that’s okay, I think I’m getting there,” he lied cheerfully.

“I’ve been crashing at Will’s, maybe I’ll take up the offer and give the poor guy some space, he’s been working himself crazy over all the stuff that’s been going on, trying to figure it out. Dunno if I’ve ever met anyone with so much focus in my life,” he said with a wry smile, shaking his head. “So I guess uh, don’t be surprised if there’s a knock on the door and it looks like there’s no one there,” Mason laughed.

He whirled to face Alice. “Yes. Yes we are playing your PS2! I used to play so much FIFA on one of my friend’s consoles… Good times.” He added a playful, longing sigh to his reminisicing, remembering simpler times. He was sure Alice could introduce him to all kinds of fun new games that he’d have no idea to play.

Mason was looking forward to it.

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[Deleted]

WORDS: 451

TAGS: OPEN

"Ugh no… you have no idea, he’s been making up the worst descriptions for powers," Claire turned around and leaned the back of her hips against the kitchen counter, loosely setting her hands into the pockets of her jeans and dipping her head down with a small chuckle. Of course he'd been. She didn't know Mason all that well.. but she felt like she knew him well enough to be endeared by his quirks. And she most definitely was.

"He wanted us to call him saran-man. Whatever you do don’t let him choose your name!" Her name? No. She was just Claire.. Alice may have caught the I-want-to-be-a-hero bug but not her. Still, she'd feel guilty for showing her distaste to the young, harmless girl. So she simply moved past to speak on the other subject. "Saran-Man... wow. Sidekick to Billy Mays?" she tried to joke, smirking off to the side in Mason's direction.

She was then told about what had gone down, relatively at least, at the warehouse space Dominic had found. "Yeah, maybe I'll uh.. check it out sometime," she answered awkwardly - unsure if she really wanted to venture out into that and also in a place she didn't know. There'd be lots of bombardment; questions, new environment, etc. Just sounded like a lot of discomfort for her. "No, no I can't fly," she chuckled a little, shaking her head and folded her arms loosely. "Yeah bring the PS2. You can play here, I don't mind," she motioned with one hand past her little bar towards the TV in the living room. She steeled herself for the next set of thoughts. She'd have to answer their questions or they'd just keep asking..

"I can make it harder. My skin. I think... And it-, well I'd have to show you," she looked at Alice who seemed expecting and could only imagine Mason was too. With a small sigh to herself, she turned around and pulled the sweatshirt above her head - the head of her dragon tattoo curling by her shoulder past the strap of her tank top. Slow, her skin became more blue-pale than having any hints of pink; the colors spreading out and changing from the core of the dragon which was now a slightly gloss-like navy blue.

"I don't know how it does that or.. what it means or anything. It feels weird for a few seconds but then it's gone. It's not just hard it's.. full-proof I think." Hell, she'd put her hand on top of a lighter and nothing had happened. She could feel it was warm, but no pain or injury registered.

NOTES: Small demonstration.
WEARING: Here.

＃ENY ADOXOGRAPHY

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Claire Elliot + Mason Warner + wearing

“Awwww.” Alice sounded disappointed, though she knew that flight would have been a little far-fetched. Except would it? Dominic could throw lightning, Mason was invisible, and Alice, well, she’d been able to take any punishment Mason and Dom were able to dish out, physically anyway. They hadn’t tried the lightning. That was a little scarier. She frowned in confusion at Claire’s explanation of her power. “Like harder than it already is? Ho-“ The demonstration cut her off, and she stared in amazement as the tattoo began to change colour, that colour spreading out like some sort of strange chemical reaction. It was affecting her whole body, and Alice watched as Claire’s skin subtly shifted in colour. “That’s so pretty…” Alice was a little awestruck, in almost the same way as she had been when Dominic had demonstrated his ability to them. This was a visual demonstration of just how much had changed. Mason’s invisibility was too, but the fact that he couldn’t be seen somehow made it less real. Watching Claire’s skin change, watching Dominic hurl sizzling bolts of electricity like an angry god. That was what really brought it home. It was confusing though, “What do you mean by full proof? Have you been trying other things as well? Like other than keys and forks I mean?” She wondered exactly what that might mean. They’d tested her limits a little over the last few days, and she’d been able to absorb anything they’d thrown at her, the only problem was, when she returned it, she returned all of it at once. Dom could hold on to part of his energy and just use a little bit, currently she was blowing her entire store of energy whenever she tried to limit herself. She wondered if that was just how it worked, or if there was some way for her to control how much she used at once.

© seadra of gs

[Mason Warner]

Stress Fracture

Mason puffed up his chest and put on his best infomercial voice. “Hi! Billy Mason here!”

He allowed himself a couple of giggles, attempting to meet Claire’s gaze as best he could. He could almost convince himself that she was actually looking at him and not at a spot on the wall behind him. Almost.

Alice seemed genuinely a little let-down that Claire hadn’t worked out how to defy gravity. Sure, that would have been cool, but what she did instead was impressive and magical all in its own right. Mason watched intently as she turned away from them and began what seemed to be an impromptu strip show. He was just trying to work out what was actually going on (assuming she hadn’t developed stripper powers) when colour from the dragon on Claire’s shoulder began to bleed out across her skin.

His mouth dropped open, mesmerised by the shift.

“Woah,” he contributed.

It didn’t explain much. Her words didn’t really expand on the workings of her power either, just kind of reiterated that her skin was supernaturally tough along with the mysterious new information that this was somehow linked to the ink decorating her body.

He frowned as Alice questioned her about experimenting further. “Have you been trying that kinda stuff alone? What if you got hurt?”

Mason wanted to reach out and touch the tattoo as though it might reveal its secrets. It was such a personal power. So connected to Claire. He wondered if their powers manifested according to their own personalities. Persephone’s and Dominic’s would make sense… maybe Alice’s too, she was pretty energetic. But what did that mean for Mason - had he always been invisible? Nothing more than an empty presence in the room with nothing to contribute but the occasional laugh and joke?

He felt very small.

ψ