"A book has got a smell. A new book smells great."

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 2:09 am

"My mother." He replied without hesitation.

"The others refer to it by other names. Sickness, illness, disease. Usually all terms related to my health. But all those words imply I'll get better.

And by now, I know I won't be. It's just something I am going to have to live with."

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 2:15 am

"I notice 'power' isn't on that list."

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 2:22 am

"No.

But power implies a superhuman ability. It would be inaccurate to state that people like Colette or myself have powers. We simply got the commonly less desired 'other end' of the physical genetics stick. One can question whether that is good or bad all they like, but it's definitely not an ability. You wouldn't say an incredibly tall person has 'powers'. "

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 2:23 am

"I'd say you've spent so long thinking of it as a sickness that you can't quite break out of that mentality to think it could be something more."

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 2:33 am

"Like what?

I'm not you. I'm not a superhero. Nobody is calling to wake me in the night to save the Prime Minister. Even if they were I wouldn't know the first bloody thing to do if they did.

I'm just a normal bloke who also happens to be obscenely rich and mostly invisible."

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 2:36 am

"Do you know what my powers started as, Basil?"

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 2:40 am

"No." He admitted, though he had to bite his tongue not to make a joke about silly putty.

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 2:42 am

"My little sister was having a nightmare. She woke up crying. I went into her room to comfort her, but my powers came out and I read her mind. By the time I opened the door, I was the monster in her dream."

"It took me years to learn how to be... just me."

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 2:53 am

He was quiet for a long time, an air of sadness permeating here that wouldn't in the physical world thanks to it belonging to Basil.

"I'm sorry. That's horrid. I wish it hadn't happened."

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 2:58 am

"The point is, I didn't just win the bloody lottery, and there were days when I couldn't see my way past that either."

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 3:10 am

"I understand but...

I don't see how my... power... could be of any use to anyone without also hurting someone else." He struggled with the P word, having to catch himself from saying something else.

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 3:13 am

"Because you don't know how to use it yet. You only just found out that it could do more than one thing, aye?"

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 3:17 am

"I guess....

Maybe it's nothing more than a defense mechanism. Maybe if I go a certain kind of unconscious my brain makes me visible to make sure I don't die.

We still don't know what caused it to happen."

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 3:20 am

"But before you thought it was impossible, aye?"

"Maybe you've just wanted to disappear because of what your mum and dad kept saying."

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 3:28 am

"I don't think I willed myself into invisibility. I was invisible before being invisible. I would have made myself invisible a lot sooner.

I ran away once. I think I would have done it then if I had the chance. Instead I just went to my friend Barry's house and Howie and Harry found me some twenty hours later."

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 3:34 am

"I don't think it made you invisible in the first place, but I think it reinforced it over time."

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 3:40 am

"Maybe... You're the expert I suppose." Basil mused, futzing with his cloak uncomfortably at the admittance. "But I have no idea what to do about it now..."

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 3:46 am

"How many people do you have around you that think you're worth a damn?"

"How many of them do you actually listen to?"

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 3:52 am

"Four." He answered after a brief moment of thought.

"In both instances."

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 4:44 am

"And do they seem to think you're destined to be a burglar, and not good for anything else?"

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 4:26 pm

"Bubbe made me swear not to use my gifts for ill, and it has been pointed out to me that gentleman thief is a legitimate occupation, so the assumptions are there. Not to mention my own behaviours.

Or that everyone here is convinced I am hiding in wait in the bushes to either intentionally listen in on their conversations, or jump out at them naked to show off my invisible tallywhacker."

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 6:13 pm

"No offense meant, but I barely knew you existed until the Halloween party.

"Where do you spend your time?"

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 6:22 pm

"Work. The Student Union Building. My room."

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 6:29 pm

"I'm not meaning this as a scold, Basil. Just I get the impression the party was the most social you'd been for awhile."

"Did it feel good, doing that?"

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 9:05 pm

"Until I went arse over teakettle, sure. "

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 10:03 pm

"More than a little performer in you, yet."

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 11:07 pm

"Oh hush, you." He replied, the response didn't sound angry, more like embarrassed.

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 11:15 pm

"Why are you ashamed of it?"

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 11:28 pm

"I wasn't exactly in my right mind at the time."

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 11:44 pm

"It's a part of you, regardless. Literally a part of you since I cuffed the Bailey and the Bohemian together."

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 11:47 pm

Basil sighed.

"I'd like to say you shouldn't have, but I don't even know why there were two to begin with."

by **Samantha McManus** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 11:49 pm

"Sometimes it's more than two,", she says a bit ruefully.

by **Basil Benson** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 11:53 pm

"No thank you." He laughed. " Two of me already almost got me killed."

It took him a moment to realize something was off.

"Is everything alright?"

by **Samantha McManus** » Fri Nov 18, 2016 1:38 am

"Basil, I'm not... a good judge of 'normal.' I think I mentioned."

by **Basil Benson** » Fri Nov 18, 2016 1:43 am

"It's alright." He replied in a gentle tone he'd only thus far used with Colette.

"That might be for the better. I'm just very good at pretending to be normal. "

by **Samantha McManus** » Fri Nov 18, 2016 1:56 am

"I don't think people like us get normal, but I'm starting to think what we do get might be better than that."

by **Basil Benson** » Fri Nov 18, 2016 2:12 am

"Normal's all I've ever wanted." Basil replied with a sigh.

"At this point I'd settle for knowing I was sane."

by **Samantha McManus** » Fri Nov 18, 2016 2:51 am

"You're not crazy, Basil. You're not sick or wrong."

by **Basil Benson** » Fri Nov 18, 2016 3:02 am

"Well I don't feel like it, and all this new nonsense is making it worse.

How does the Madame or Chase or the few people I haven't cocked it up with know they like me when I don't even know who me is? Maybe they liked one of them more than they like me...

If I've been like this the entire time the chances are high that is the case and now maybe I'm someone else entirely.

Oh Lord! She stuck her tongue in my mouth! What if she thought she was sticking her tongue in his mouth?!"

This was escalating quickly.

by **Samantha McManus** » Fri Nov 18, 2016 3:07 am

Sam winces a little at the barrage of confession.

"...you're him, remember?"

"I mean, you're also the one with the stick up his arse, but between the two of you, you're a halfway tolerable person. Someone who maybe cares a bit much about tea cozies, but still..."

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