CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
|
Post by Kenzi Nadir on Jul 21, 2020 7:20:22 GMT
Kenzi found Megan’s account of her voice acting exceedingly interesting. Of course, Rob had given her plenty of detailed accounts about what it was like to act on stage and, occasionally, for the camera. But voice acting was unexplored territory, and Kenzi had always considered herself an avid explorer. She laughed. ”Cool, do you have those videos? Like, can I see them? You don’t have to show me if you don’t wanna, but they definitely sound interesting,” she said with a big smile. Stoking the skeletal wolf, she listened intently as Megan gave a history of the area, the tar pits, and the reason for the fossils. ”It’s super cool that you know all this, though I guess that’s to be expected for someone who can move bones and shit,” she said while staring down at the wolf. She followed Megan’s vague gesture, though, as to be expected, she couldn’t see anything through the thick brush. She looked at the image Megan showed on her phone. ”Ooh, cool. I like the lighting,” she said. ”And the skulls too, of course, those are cool too,” she added sincerely, though clearly as a second thought. ”Exactly! EXACTLY! Thank you!” she responded to Megan’s praise. ”Some people, I show them, and they just don’t get it, you know? It’s just ‘ooh colors;’ they don’t try to look deeper.” She let out a sigh. “Sorry, that probably sounds pretentious as fuck, but you get what I mean, right?” she asked. “Though I should say, don’t dismiss the rectangles. I have a lot of thoughts on abstract art like that, but I’ll save you that rant for later, because ooh boy,” she wiped imaginary sweat from her brow, ”that rant goes on for hours,” she said. ”Cool!” she said, twirling the pencil in her fingers. ”Cool, cool, cool.” She eyed the lines of the Dire Wolf’s jaw and began copying it in her sketchbook. ”I really think we should give it a name,” she said as she drew. ”Do you know its gender?” She paused. ”Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. Gender is a social construct anyway.” She brought the eraser to the chin, studying the wolf carefully. ”Sammy,” she declared. ”Their name is Sammy.”Megan Daniels |
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CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
|
Post by Kenzi Nadir on Jul 7, 2020 9:03:28 GMT
Kenzi laughed. ”Yeah, I’m not one of those people who can do a lot with very few words. With very few lines, colors, images, yeah. But words, naw. I could never be a writer or anything like that.” Every member of her family had an artistic specialization. Kenzi - art, Andrea - music, Rob - acting, their father - jewelry, their mother - inventing/engineering (which the whole family had designated as an artistic endeavor), but it seemed the gift of writing had passed them over. Perhaps Kenzi’s niece would turn out to be a prodigy in the field, or one of her own offspring. She supposed she’d just have to wait and see. She listened intently, eyes wide, as Megan enlightened Kenzi on her experiences in voice acting. Kenzi may have been a loudmouth, but she knew when to shut up when it mattered. As much as she bulldozed conversations, she was an exceptionally good listener. She knew how to absorb information like a sponge, and she could empathize like no other. Empathy, in her opinion, was the most important thing a human could experience, and should be afforded to even those who had difficulty empathizing back. She gave a well-natured laugh. ”That’s awesome, dude! It sounds like a lot of fun, getting into a character like that. I bet it really lets you use your imagination and stuff. It seems more freeing than in-person acting, in a way.” She chuckled. ”I’ll have to convince Rob to give it a try.”With confidence, Kenzi walked up to the skeleton and gave it some gentle pets on the head as if it were her own dog. She afforded the same attention to Megan’s explanation of her powers as she did her voice acting. “Dire Wolf? Isn’t that a Game of Thrones thing? I don’t know, I never watched the series. I was waiting for the whole thing to come out so I could binge watch it, then I heard it got really shitty so…” she clicked her tongue, “that kinda sucks.” She caught herself. “The show, not your Dire Wolf,” she quickly corrected. ”Your Dire Wolf is awesome.” She smiled and scratched it’s long, bumpy spine. ”Your whole power is awesome. It must be so fun to spook people with this kind of stuff.” Of course, her mind went immediately to pranks when it came to Megan’s power, but she appreciated it for a myriad of other reasons. ”Just the aesthetic is super badass,” she added. Sitting on the dirt-covered ground, she took the backpack - painted in bright, colorful, rainbow swirls, garnished with glitter - off her shoulders, and placed it on the ground in front of her. She unzipped it and took out a sketchbook - cover similarly colorful. She passed it over to Megan. ”Here, this should give you a taste of the kind of stuff I usually make. Of course, I try to mix it up a lot, but that’s kind of a jist. Be careful looking through it though, don’t wanna mess up any of the work.” The sketchbook contained a large array of stunning abstract work - some looked like they could be based on real life objects, but most were completely alien to any real world equivalent. A myriad of mediums were used - graphite, pen, colored pencil, crayon, glitter - if it could be used in a standard sketchbook, it was in there. Every once in a while, there was an objective piece depicted at a strange and interesting angle, so accurate it looked like it could have been a photograph. ”I usually do abstract stuff ‘cause, you know, that’s a bit more pure, if that makes sense. Like, it comes from the mind; you create it and nothing else. I do objective stuff every once in a while though when I get bored, or when I wanna show off to the noobs.” She gave Megan a cheeky grin. She pulled out another sketchbook - a much newer one - and a high-end pencil, tip so sharp it looked like it could easily puncture skin. ”Do you mind if I use your Dire Wolf in one of my pieces? Don’t worry, I won’t draw it verbatim, but it’s energy is just…inspiring.” She stared at the skeleton for a moment, eyes wide, then looked back up at Megan. ”Can I?”Megan Daniels |
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CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
|
Post by Kenzi Nadir on Jun 23, 2020 6:31:17 GMT
Kenzi was really liking Megan. Some people were so cynical, so put off by her enthusiasm and energy. This didn’t describe most people, far from it. But Kenzi had met enough sourpusses to be prepared for a backlash whenever she was her unapologetic lively self. Of course, Kenzi was persistent, and almost everyone came around to her eventually. She didn’t go away from an encounter with a stranger without transforming them into her friend. And it seemed she was already well on her way there with Megan. ”You do, don’t you!” Kenzi agreed ecstatically. ”I love rambling. Like love it. I come across ideas I didn’t even know I had! But it’s important to listen to people too,” she said, tapping her ear. ”I kinda tend to just bulldoze over other people in conversation, so to speak. It’s something I’m working on. 'Cause other people, they’re interesting, they’re inspiring, and they can provide you with plenty of new ideas too,” she said, smiling. ”Ooh, voice acting? What did you act in? How did you get into character? What was it like acting when you weren’t doing anything physically? Was it weird not being face to face with your costars?” She forced herself to stop the line of questioning there. She had many more questions she wanted to ask, but she didn’t want to overwhelm her new friend. Rob had never done any voice acting, so she had no frame of reference for what the experience was like and she was curious to learn. Kenzi grinned wide, her teeth practically sparkling as Megan complimented her ability. ”Attention manipulation, baby!” she exclaimed. She threw the leaves up into the air and let them slowly flutter down around them. ”I diverted your attention away from my hand and onto my face and just picked the leaves off the bush right in front of you without you even noticing!” she explained proudly. ”I can also sense what you’re paying attention to, though if you’re focusing inward, I can’t tell what you’re thinking about. I can’t read minds or anything.” She put her hands on her hips. ”I’m basically the stealthiest person in the world. Although I don’t really wanna do stealthy shit as a job. Maybe for fun, but not as a career. I wanna be an artist!” she said, grinning. ”I basically already am. I was in a couple galleries, sold a couple pieces. I’m going to the EMBA to learn how to control my powers and just kinda get out of the Midwest - I’m on vacation here with my family, by the way, thus the Midwest thing - but art is what I really wanna focus on.” She let out a little laugh and cleared her throat. ”There I am bulldozing again. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.”She looked at Megan’s skeletal animal. It was beautiful, but it was also darn cute, in a spooky scary skeleton kind of way. “Can I pet your dog? Or is it a wolf?” she asked. ”Can it feel? Can it think? Or are you just moving the bones around?” She stepped toward the canine. ”Does it have a name?”Megan Daniels |
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CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
|
Post by Kenzi Nadir on Jun 11, 2020 3:06:13 GMT
Kenzi’s smile widened as the woman grabbed her hand. Megan, she said her name was. She was relieved that Megan wasn’t put off by her sudden appearance. Apparently her assumption that someone hiding deep in the wilderness (as much wilderness as there can be in the city) didn't want to be bothered was untrue. It was likely she just didn’t want to spook people with her skeletons. Plus, some people could be real dickholes about metahumans. It was probably smart to try to avoid any bigoted assholes by hiding deep in the brush. ”Oh, awesome!” Kenzi replied at Megan’s mention of film school. ”I love movies. Any form of art really is exciting. My brother used to want to be an actor so he’d show me all kinds of movies. He’s a salesman now, but he never really lost the passion, so we still watch plenty of movies together.” Kenzi laughed. ”Sorry, that was kind of a tangent. I do that a lot,” she said, grinning. A mischievous smile grew across Kenzi’s face. ”A demonstration.” She thought for a moment. Whenever people asked what her powers were, she always displayed them with a demonstration. She tried to do a different trick each time, but she didn’t have one prepared at the moment, so she had to come up with one on the spot. ”Alright!” she said, an idea coming to her head. She pulled a leaf off of a nearby bush. ”See this?” She held the leaf in front of Megan. ”Keep watching the leaf, don’t take your eyes off the leaf.” As she spoke, she diverted Megan’s attention away from her hand and the leaf, making her focus on Kenzi’s face and voice. Thus, she’d be completely unable to notice as Kenzi pulled several more leaves off the bush. Finally, with five leaves in her hand, she released her hold on Megan’s attention. ”How many leaves am I holding?” she asked with a cheeky grin. Megan Daniels |
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CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
|
Post by Kenzi Nadir on Jun 10, 2020 8:36:37 GMT
VACATION!!! Summer was here, which meant school was over, which meant vacation time! Her family had gone on a vacation every summer since she was born, and while they never left the U.S., Kenzi was still thrilled to discover new things in different states - from the mountains of Colorado to the oceans of Florida to the lobster in Rhode Island - every trip was a different adventure. While the family had changed, the tradition hadn’t. Both her older sister, Andrea, and her even older brother, Rob, had moved out long ago. And since Rob got married to his wife - a lovely young woman named Val - and had a baby - a sweet little girl named Chrissy - the family had grown, but that didn’t stop them from getting out of the corn-filled Midwest and seeing what the rest of the country had to offer. This summer, the family was spending two weeks in California. Los Angeles to be exact. The Nadirs had been to California before, up north in San Francisco, but it was a big state; there was lots to explore. While in the past, the family would drive to their destination no matter how far it was from their hometown, this year they decided to take a plane. The sights Kenzi saw as they flew over the country provided her with no end of inspiration for her art. The clouds, especially, she found spoke to her deeply. They landed, got their rental cars, and drove to their rental home. As quickly as she could, Kenzi dragged her suitcase to her room, unzipped it, grabbed the art supplies they wouldn’t let her carry onto the plane with her, stuffed them into her backpack, slung it over her shoulder, and marched out the door. On her way out, her mother stopped her, warning her it wouldn’t be safe for her to travel alone. Kenzi laughed. ”I’m not in danger. If any bad guy tries to attack me, I can just say ‘look over there’ and run away.” Her mother nodded and replied, “Fair enough.” With a characteristic large grin on her face, Kenzi rushed out the door and into the city. Kenzi took in LA with wide eyes and an awestruck smile. Kenzi believed that every city had a soul, a spirit. Not literally, of course; she didn’t believe in those things. But artistically. Everywhere you went, there was an aura to be captured, and she planned to do exactly that during her vacation time, as she did during every other vacation she’d ever taken. Eventually, she made her way to a park - Hancock Park, she believed it was called - and wandered in, going off the beaten path, as always. Being the inquisitive young woman she was, she went straight into the brush, taking in the atmosphere, the strange yet beautiful concept of nature in the city. After some time getting whacked by bushes and branches, she saw what looked like a person in the distance. She thought about loudly greeting this stranger, but decided against it. Perhaps they wanted their solidarity. Not many people went this deep into the brush looking to run into another person. Still, her curiosity got the best of her, so, using her powers to direct all attention away from herself, she moved closer to the stranger - a young woman with bright dyed hair. Just as she was getting close to the woman, a skeleton started to rise from the ground. Her mouth opened into a wide oval as she let in an excited gasp, watching in amazement as a fully formed wolf skeleton emerged from the ground. ”Oh my god, that’s awesome!” she exclaimed ecstatically, dropping all attention manipulation. She ran up to the woman ”Did you just bring the skeleton up from the ground. Dude! That’s amazing! You must be a metahuman! I am too, so don’t worry about any assholery from me about that stuff.” She looked the wolf skeleton up and down, admiring its beauty. ”I always loved the energy skeletons had, you know, like, artistic energy.” She stared at it a little longer in silence before turning back to the woman. ”Kenzi!” she announced zestfully, sticking out her hand. Megan Daniels |
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CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
|
Post by Kenzi Nadir on Jan 7, 2020 9:04:01 GMT
Kenzi stood on top of the hill overlooking the school, bouncing eagerly on the balls of her feet. To the other side of her was a lush, green forest that stretched for miles. She was decked out in an intricate costume involving black boots, faux light black leather armor, satchels, hilts containing very realistic fake daggers, and a cowl, complete with a piece of cloth she could use to cover the bottom half of her face. In short, she looked badass. She’d created the costume herself. The daggers she'd bought online. When pushed, they would slide into the hilt, so she could actually stab someone. If she were Kenzi, she would’ve decorated the things with glitter and fake jewels. But today, she was not Kenzi. Today, she was Kaine.
She’d created flyers, using her artistic gifts to make them as visually engrossing as possible. They promised a LARPing session starting at noon on Saturday. It was fantasy themed. They were to meet on top of the hill; they would know where it was once they saw the rogue in black. Beginners were welcome. Costumes were also welcome but not required. Players could use their powers. That’s what made it interesting after all. She’d made a shit ton of copies and hung them all over the school. Students and faculty couldn’t go five feet without seeing one of her flyers. Whenever she walked through the halls, she’d subtly push the students’ attention toward the flyers, getting a nice ego boost whenever someone mentioned how pretty they were. She didn’t ask the faculty if she were allowed to hang them up, but luckily, they didn’t seem to mind.
The flyers directed them toward a link that would explain the story. There were two warring kingdoms - she would let the teams decide the name for their kingdom once they got together. In the beginning, each kingdom would start out with one power gem, and in order to win the war, the kingdom would have to obtain both power gems. They would play in the forest by the school. She included her email in case anyone had any questions. More would be explained at the session. It was basically a dramatized capture the flag; she didn’t want to do anything too ambitious for their first session. She went light on the story to keep things simple so the players could have a lot of flexibility in creating their characters. She’d be more detailed in session two. She held each power gem in her hand. They were large plastic things in the shape of a gem, one purple and one green. She gripped them tight and checked the time on her phone. 11:45. She hummed impatiently before putting her phone away.
Kenzi was actually nervous. This was a rarity for her. It was an uncomfortable feeling and she didn’t like it. But she wasn’t sure if anyone would actually show up. Keke was pretty much a certainty, and Melody said she would watch, but there wouldn’t be much to watch if there were only two people. Besides the flyers, she told pretty much every person she came across about the LARP and gave an announcement at the end of every class, handing out flyers as the students left the classroom. She took a deep breath. People would come. It would be okay. Not just okay. This would be fun. Her anticipation and anxiety intermingled, making her heart beat an uncomfortable amount.
She couldn’t wait for the game to begin.
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CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
|
Post by Kenzi Nadir on Jan 6, 2020 5:48:02 GMT
”Yessss!” She clapped her hands together and gave a little jump. ”Trust me, it’s gonna be tons of fun, even if you’re just watching.” Of course, Kenzi hoped that Melody would be enticed into becoming a player. She wasn’t sure how helpful the laser eyes might be. Hopefully she could just set them to stun or something. It wouldn’t do to have players vaporized. It was just a game after all. Still, she didn’t need her powers to enjoy herself. The powers were a fun side effect of having a LARPing session with a bunch of metahumans, but definitely not a necessity. Classes. Oh shit. ”Well I just missed history. Left my glitter bag back there, gonna have to go back, see what happened to it and try to get it back.” She bit her lip as she came to this realization. She’d all but forgotten about her prank gone wrong. The injury and her new friend had distracted her. It might be weird going back there, but no glitter should go to waste. She could take whatever punishment befell her. She was sure she could just slink out of there with her powers anyway. ”What do I have next though? Hm…” She put her finger on her chin, thinking. ”I think I have English next. I should probably go to that. I like English and I skipped yesterday.” She’d been skipping a lot of classes lately. She always had, even back home. The learning part of school had never been that important to her. It was the social aspect that really mattered. She still managed to squeak by with Bs and Cs (except for art class, where she didn’t accept anything less than an A+), so she wasn’t too worried about graduating. It did make her schedule a bit confusing though. When everyday was different, the word “schedule” didn’t hold much meaning. ”Well, it was nice meeting you Melody! And I’m not just saying that ‘cause it’s a thing people say. Like legit, you seem like a cool person. Imma head to class, but I’ll see you around.” She walked off into the hallway back towards her history class. “See ya at the LARP!” She said as she walked away, turning around briefly to give Melody two finger guns and a wink before walking forward again, a large grin on her face, a bounce in her step. She’d made a new friend today. Melody Newton
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CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
|
Dec 23, 2019 19:25:56 GMT
Post by Kenzi Nadir on Dec 23, 2019 19:25:56 GMT
Kenzi took a deep, elegant bow, complete with a graceful wave of the hand. ”Thank you, thank you.” She said as if she were performing in front of a wide audience. ”I’ve been learning a lot of magic tricks too. As you can imagine, the attention manipulation is very useful for that. Makes things real easy. Maybe too easy.” She tapped her finger on her chin, thinking. ”Oh well, it’s still fun to see the look on someone’s face when you totally mindfuck them Apollo Robbins style.” She added with a wink. ”Dude, ya gotta come see one of my glitter pranks sometime. You don’t have to be the target for it to be interesting. Glitter is fucking beautiful, I mean, just look.” She pulled at her DIY sparkly purple t-shirt. Looking down, she noticed the blood stain on the bottom of the shirt. ”Oh shoot.” She felt the stain with her fingers; the blood was starting to harden. ”I forgot about that.” She studied it a little closer. ”Do you think it looks cool?” She asked Melody. ”I think it kinda looks cool.” She released her hold on her shirt. ”Ah, what the fuck, I’m keeping it!”Kenzi shrugged. ”Depends on the setting. Most LARPing is medieval fantasy kind of stuff with swords and magic and all that. But we could do a viking setting. Or a sci fi setting. Or a zombie setting. We could even do a modern day kind of thing with Nerf guns and all that crap, but I dunno, I don’t think that allows for as much creativity. The one we’re planning is the fantasy one. I already have this whole rogue character that I’m super excited to unveil.” She gave Melody a playful elbow. ”And you don’t have to be a nerd, but it certainly helps.” She winked. Kenzi smiled understandingly. Melody said she wasn’t into it, but there was something there, something in her voice that said she might be interested. Maybe Kenzi was looking into things too much, maybe it was just wishful thinking, but she held onto the notion that Melody wanted to join them. Still, she would respect her words. ”Why don’t you come check it out, just for the first round? You can just watch, you don’t have to join. Then you can see if you really wanna do it.” She shrugged. ”Wouldn’t hurt. Besides, I wouldn’t want you missing out on all the fun. It is really, really fuckin’ fun.” She grinned wide and thrust her thumb toward her chest. ”You haven’t roleplayed until you’ve roleplayed with me!” Melody Newton |
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CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
|
Post by Kenzi Nadir on Dec 21, 2019 9:20:11 GMT
Kenzi noticed Melody’s features tightened when she mentioned her eyes. It must’ve been a sensitive subject for Melody. Melody seemed to be sensitive about a lot of things. It was a common aspect in teens, Kenzi had noticed. Luckily for Kenzi, she didn’t seem to have the sensitivity bug. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt embarrassment. Her parents taught her to embrace herself and be proud, as long as she didn’t hurt anybody, of course. Her siblings were all the same way. Family get togethers were always eccentric to outsiders, but more than comfortable for the Nadirs. Nevertheless, she decided to back off on Melody’s physical uniqueness. She didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. She watched Melody, excited but tense. She hoped she wouldn’t be mad at Kenzi or get injured. The “it’s just a prank bro” excuse didn’t work if someone got actually hurt, physically or otherwise. She came up with this prank on the spot; usually she spent more time devoted to coming up with a prank, so there were quite a few imperfections in this shoe-tying thing. She just had to hope everything turned out alright. If they did, though, she couldn’t wait to see the results. Much to her relief, Melody caught herself before she could hit the floor hard. Kenzi let loose a torrent of laughter. But it was not a mean spirited laugh. It was upbeat and hearty. She laughed as if they were both in on the joke. Quickly, still laughing, she ran over to help Melody up. “Yeah, kinda. Attention manipulation baby!” She proclaimed, wiggling her arms in the air excitedly after helping Melody to her feet. ”It’s pretty useful for pranks and stuff. But not those stupid faked YouTube pranks that are just softcore porn. Like, actual pranks. I’m basically a prank goddess. If you see any glitter attacks around the school, that’s me!” She winked and pointed to herself with her thumb. “But yeah, Keke’s super cool. We were talking about starting a LARPing group. We already have some cool locations picked out. I’m making some flyers to put around the school. Do you wanna join? It’s okay if you don’t have any experience, I can teach you. I just thought it would be really cool with all our powers and stuff, you know?”Melody Newton |
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CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
|
Post by Kenzi Nadir on Dec 15, 2019 3:56:47 GMT
It seemed Melody had calmed down. Kenzi’s defense had been convincing. She let out a little sigh of relief and relaxed, leaning her back against the wall and smiling. She was starting to lose hope that Melody would ever be her friend, though it appeared her fortune was turning around. Consider the nut cracked. Now she just needed to peel away the shell to get to the soft and squishy inside. It was a process, but she was very good at it. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Physically, she had very weak and tiny fingers. She was not good at cracking nuts. Melody accepted Kenzi’s sudden change of subject, and Kenzi’s smile widened. ”Mainly lasers? Dude, just lasers would be awesome enough. What else can you do?” She asked. ”Oh! You were that girl Keke was talking about! You know Keke? I met her in math class. She made the bells go off and we skipped class and found an underground tunnel. Long story.” She shook her head and put up her hand, dismissing said long story. ”See, I made the Cyclops comparison too! When she mentioned your powers. Good thing you can control them though, unless you got, like, laser proof contacts or something. God, Cyclops should really invest in some of those.” She waved her hand dismissively. ”Ah, he’s an asshole anyway, he doesn’t deserve something practical like that.”She went up on her tip-toes, looking closer at Melody’s eyes. ”But yeah, your eyes are, like, super cool. I always wished I had heterochromia or something like that, but I’m not, like...white, and that happens more with white people I’m pretty sure.” She shrugged. ”You lucked out, man. I’m assuming you got the cool eyes ‘cause of your powers. I didn’t get shit from my powers, physically at least. No cool skin color, no special extremities, no wild hair - though I guess I could just dye it - not even, like, a significant height difference. I know I’m pretty tiny, but that’s just natural.” She shrugged again. ”Yeah, powers!” She clapped her hands and grinned wide. ”A demonstration! Um…” She put her finger up to her chin, thinking. She had several ways she liked to showcase her powers, but she didn’t want to repeat herself. She already used her best one on her roommate. She looked around, humming. ”Okay, got it!” She declared after a second. ”You see that little crack up there?” She pointed to a crack in the ceiling tile. ”Pretty interesting, isn’t it?” She used her powers to focus all of Melody’s attention on the crack. As she was doing so, she knelt down, untied Melody’s shoelaces, then tied the two shoes together. After that, she walked out into the hallway and took a couple steps back, then released her hold on Melody’s attention. Melody should have no idea what Kenzi did to her shoes. ”Okay, now come towards me.” She said, a mischievous grin on her face. She realized then that Melody could actually hurt herself if she fell too hard. Hopefully that wouldn’t happen and she would just catch herself. If worst came to worst, the nurse’s office was right around the corner. Melody Newton |
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CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
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Post by Kenzi Nadir on Dec 7, 2019 7:25:19 GMT
Kenzi noted Melody’s gratitude. Another step closer. Only problem was what to do after the nurse released them. Maybe she could offer to walk Melody to her class? Or maybe just skip with her entirely if she wanted to. Kenzi had been missing a lot of classes, but not too many. At least, she hoped it hadn’t been too many. She hadn’t gotten called to the principal’s office. Yet. And hey, who was she to break the streak? ”Coolio, thanks.” She said as the nurse checked her wound. ”I was pretty sure Melody had done a good job, but I wanted to make sure. Ethos, you know? God, I’ve been saying that a lot today, haven’t I?” She said more to herself than anyone else. She noticed the nurse seemed a bit uncomfortable. Maybe she felt bad about divulging information Melody clearly didn’t want divulged. She drew all the nurse’s attention to herself, making her forget about Melody for a second. ”Seriously, thank you.” She didn’t like it when people felt genuinely bad, so she tried to use her powers for good and give them a release from their woes, if only for a bit. She quickly released the nurse’s attention so she could take care of Melody. Kenzi tilted her head to the side. ”Hey, don’t assume things, mate. I can read people.” She said, upbeat. It seemed Melody had gotten an impression of Kenzi from their small time together. Kenzi was a very open (some may say too open) book, so that wasn’t surprising, but it seemed she had gotten a wrong impression. Just because Kenzi didn’t have boundaries didn’t mean she didn’t respect the boundaries of others. It didn’t take long for Melody to take her pills, so it wasn’t too strange for Kenzi to wait around. ”Sure thing!” She replied to the nurse’s command to go back to class. ”And if you ever need an assistant, let me know!” She said as she walked out of the door with a wink, a click of the tongue, and a pair of finger guns. She was about to follow Melody into the hall before she grabbed the door and turned around. ”That was a joke, by the way. Inside joke.” Another wink and click. She was about to open her mouth to say something to Melody when the fellow student hustled her around a corner and out of sight. Kenzi put up her hands. ”Dude, if you don’t want me to tell anybody, I won’t tell anybody. I’m not an asshole.” She said, a bit surprised at Melody’s reaction. She must’ve been really embarrassed about those pills. “Seriously, I don’t give a shit if you take pills. It’s not a big deal. My sister’s on like, eight pills. Okay, hyperbole, but she’s got ADHD and bipolar and all that shit, takes a lotta meds to manage. I was on stuff for ADHD when I was younger too, though that turned out to be a misdiagnosis, I just have a lot of energy, but whatever.” She shook her head. ”I won’t tell, it’s none of my business, and if you want it secret, I can keep it secret. I know I talk a lot, but I don’t talk about stuff people don’t want me to, capisce?” Her tone was slightly more serious than usual, but it didn’t lose its cheerful pep. ”Seriously girl, let’s talk about something else. What are your powers?” She asked. Melody Newton |
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CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
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Post by Kenzi Nadir on Dec 6, 2019 21:16:25 GMT
”Dude, this is a prime graffiti environment.” She said, briefly running her hand along the wall as well. ”It’s got tooth, but not too much. It’s flat enough to be manageable, but it’s got enough curve if you wanna be fancy. It’s enclosed, so it won’t be subject to the wear and tear of weather.” She grinned back at Keke. ”And best of all, only a select few people would be aware of it. It’ll have an audience, but an appreciative audience. I doubt any of the staff would wander down here and see it. We’ll make sure that only those who truly appreciate the art would have access to it.” She gave Keke a wink. ”I could teach you, you know.” She offered at Keke’s admittance to her lack of knowledge or skill. ”I could make some stencils, then show you how to use the spray can. Start off simple, build our way up. Then I could teach you how to make your own stencils. You’ll be a graffiti master in no time!” She said excitedly. ”I’ve been tagging things since I was, like, thirteen or fourteen so I have a lot of experience in the matter. I could probably go around the school and pretty it up a bit without getting caught given my powers-” She let in a sharp, excited gasp. ”That’s an amazing idea! I’ll be like an art vigilante. Don’t tell anyone about it though, I want it to be a secret.” She told Kenzi. ”Eh. It seems structurally sound enough.” She gave the wall a knock. ”Ow.” She said, shaking her hand. ”Hurt my knuckles. It really does have some tooth, don’t it.” She rubbed her knuckles, scratched ever so slightly by the wall. ”But yeah, I wouldn’t worry about it. A structure like this ain’t coming down easily.” Reaching the end of the tunnel, she grinned wide as Keke agreed with her idea. ”I know right! We really gotta get this thing off the ground. I’ll make flyers, hang them up around the school. And I’ll be sure to tell everyone I know about it!” As in bother everyone she knew about it, but that wasn’t how she saw it. ”Ooh, I’m so excited. This is gonna be fun! I knew coming to the school was a good idea! Awesome powers, awesome people,” she pointed at Keke, ”just an awesome adventure all around!” She giggled. ”Excuse my excessive optimism, I know it can get a bit cheesey but,” she shrugged, ”that’s just how it be.”She looked up as she heard as distant, muffled ringing. ”Well, I guess that’s the next class.” She said. ”As much as I’d like to hang around a bit longer, I probably shouldn’t miss too many of my classes on my first day. Wanna exchange numbers? We can plan the LARPing and I can teach you how to graffiti and just general friend stuff.” She held her phone, ready to acquire Keke’s number. Keaira Matthews
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CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
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Post by Kenzi Nadir on Dec 1, 2019 7:51:32 GMT
Again, ignoring Melody’s less than stellar attitude, Kenzi rambled on. ”Cool. Yeah I thought nurse assistant would be weird, but it would be kinda cool to involve students in that kind of stuff if they’re interested. She shrugged. ”Would probably be pretty irresponsible though. I doubt a teenager could get licensed. Unless they have the power to get licensed or something like that. There’s some pretty crazy powers out there, you never know.”Melody was intriguing to Kenzi. She was like a tough nut she couldn’t crack. Kenzi was the kind of person who invited others in. Sure, not everybody could jive with her energetic personality. Some people were just not going to like her. She just had to accept that. Unfortunately, she had an awful lot of trouble accepting that. Who wouldn’t like her? She was open and amiable and eccentric enough to be interesting. What wasn’t to love? It was obvious Melody hadn’t come to love Kenzi. Yet. She’d crack that nut if it killed her. Kenzi grinned wide as Melody agreed with her sentiment about skipping class. She was making progress. ”I know right? I thought we’d have cool classes that taught us how to use our powers like the X-Men or something. Instead we’re just taking math and science and all that boring shit. I moved here to get away from that. I know knowledge is power. But, like, literal power is also power.” She rolled her eyes before landing on Melody again. ”What are your powers anyway? I don’t think I’ve asked you that yet.”Kenzi could sense Melody’s stress level rising at each passing second. Whatever she was in there for must’ve been somewhat important. Kenzi could help with that. It seemed that their conversation (as she called it) wasn’t engaging enough to distract Melody from her worries. But she could just nudge Melody’s attention toward her. Not a lot, just enough to ease her stress. But before she could do that, the nurse came in, offering Melody her pills. She swore the look on Melody’s face could kill. And who knew, maybe it could. Things were weird like that now-a-days. “Ah.” She gave Melody a sympathetic smile and a subtle nod. The girl was embarrassed about taking medication. Kenzi wanted to assure her it was nothing to be ashamed about, but decided to save that speech for later, when Melody wasn’t fuming. ”Hey, uh, you mind taking a look at my finger first? I smashed it in a door. Accidentally, of course. Melody here did a good job patching it up, but I just wanna make sure everything’s done right and I won’t get an infection or anything.” She smiled once again at Melody and gave her a wink, hoping to communicate that she put herself first to save the both of them from class time. Melody would be her friend no matter what. She would crack this nut. Melody Newton |
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CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
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Post by Kenzi Nadir on Oct 20, 2019 3:30:50 GMT
Kenzi laughed. Melody didn’t seem particularly amused, and her comment seemed more annoyed than playful, but Kenzi ignored it. There was no use responding to negativity with negativity. That just made things worse for everybody. ”I know, but wouldn’t that be cool though? In a horror movie. Not in real life, obviously. That would kinda suck. But like, that kinda gore done well I’d love to see. Special effects in film are a really special kinda art, especially gore, like visceral, stomach-churning gore, and if you can do it well, like Cronenburg style, Imma buy that shit on blu-ray.” She put her uninjured finger on her chin. ”I left my blu-ray player back at home though. I could get my parents to send it over. Do you think they’d let us hook it up to the TV in the dorms? I’d love to see Videodrome on blu-ray again. We could have a midnight screening, you know, if you’re into that kinda thing.”Kenzi studied her finger as Melody pulled the gauze away. ”Nice job.” She said. ”Do you do this often? Like, are you the nurse’s assistant or something? That would be kinda weird to have a student assistant, but you never know. I mean, you never did tell me why you’re here I don’t think. Or maybe you did and I missed it. I’m usually a pretty attentive person, but it happens.”She shrugged. ”You’ve done pretty good so far. I trust your judgement.” Kenzi followed Melody’s orders to hold still and watched as the fellow student carefully pressed the nail back into place and put the bandage over it. ”Hmm.” She hummed. ”I mean, I woulda cut it off, but I’m no expert. You seem more adept at this than me. Like seriously, are you nurse’s assistant? Or are you just in here a lot ‘cause nurse’s assistant seems like a really weird thing.”Kenzi held up her bandaged finger, looking closely at it. ”Nice.” She said. ”Still hurts, but nice.” She put both her hands on the nurse's bed, swinging her legs back and forth. ”Now don’t take this personally, you did a good job and all, I just want to wait for the nurse to make sure it’s done properly and I don’t get an infection or anything. Like I said, ethos. But this is good for the moment, you know, making sure I don’t bleed out or whatever.” She gave Melody a mischievous smile. ”I also just don’t wanna go back to class.” She also wanted time to talk to Melody. She’d never pass up the chance to make a new potential friend. Melody Newton |
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CLASSIFICATION
Puppeteer
POWER
Attention Manipulation
AGE
17
Student
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Post by Kenzi Nadir on Oct 7, 2019 6:05:54 GMT
There was something about the girl’s eyes that really attracted her attention. They were such a beautiful color. She wished she could capture it, turn it into a pastel that she could use in her artwork. She was sure if she tried enough she could recreate it through mixing and blending, but it was such a startling color, it would take a lot of work. Plus, she’d want to use it an awful lot; it would be difficult to recreate it over and over again. Maybe she could create her own, if she tried. She’d have to remember to ask if she could take a picture of the girl once she got her finger bandaged up for color reference. ”Melody. That’s a nice NAME!” Her voice rose three octaves as Melody pressed the antiseptic against her bare, bloody flesh. She squeezed her eyes shut. “Holy FUCK! Okay.” She took a deep breath. ”Okay sorry. Just...ouch.” She gave a strained little laugh. Her finger stung like someone had just touched hot metal to her flesh, but she laughed it off. Kenzi was a pro at redirecting attention, not just others, but her own. She couldn’t use her powers on herself (at least if she could, she hadn’t figured out how to), but she was quite proficient at taking control of her mind, especially when there were people to socialize with. ”You know that’s funny, ‘cause my sister’s a musician,” she said, talking through the pain. ”She’s not like, super well known. I don’t know if you know her. Andrea Nadir?” she asked without waiting for an answer. ”Anyway, she makes the best music. It’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before. One hundred percent unique, authentic; it’s true art.” She laughed a little. ”Oh no, I almost got started on the art rant. We just met, I don’t think you’re ready for that.” She laughed again, full and hearty. ”So uh, you know what you’re doing with this finger thing here? Not saying I don’t trust you, it’s just this nail seems like a delicate ordeal and you haven’t quite displayed the ethos to let me know you won’t give me an infection or something,” she said casually. ”Not that I’m particularly worried about that. I’m not that kind of person. I’m just saying, you know, maybe we can put our two brains together and make sure my nail doesn’t grow into my flesh.” She laughed. ”I’m joking by the way. I know that’s not gonna happen. Probably.” She added that last word with jest. Melody Newton |
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