Sept 4th - Not-so-Fine Wine ((open))

by **Miriam Bell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 2:57 pm

"Pretty much. It's not exactly a fun place to be, especially for the head-cases. When your bones grow spikes they can handle that. Your brain doesn't really have a good blueprint for how it's 'supposed' to be though."

by **Alex Maurell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 3:41 pm

"I wouldn't expect there to be." He wondered what would they do in his case, for the moment he was fine. But if his mutation was connected to his brain then there's not telling how it'd change.

by **Miriam Bell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 3:55 pm

"So yeah, some people never really manage. Biggest problem's really when the mutation manifests, so I wouldn't worry too much if I were you, you seem to be handling it alright. If you want I could take a look..." she suggests.

by **Alex Maurell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 6:32 pm

At her suggestion the constructs roared in disapproval, practically jolting Alex from his seat and making him rub his temples in frustration. "I'm pretty sure you heard that...ow..."

by **Miriam Bell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 6:45 pm

"That sounded like a resounding no to me."

by **Alex Maurell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 7:17 pm

"Yeah, no kidding...Still, they can't always get their way. I'll let you take a look if you want."

by **Miriam Bell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 7:27 pm

"I'll admit, I'm curios." she says, reaching out with her mind to make more direct contact and project herself into Alex' mind.

by **Alex Maurell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 7:51 pm

She would get a flicker of a view, a landscape, before something shoved her elsewhere. Miriam would find herself in a corridor reminiscent of yellow cavern but littered with doors seemingly at random.

by **Miriam Bell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 8:17 pm

"Somebody doesn't want me in there." she says as she carefully walks down the corridor. Her mental avatar looks like a strangely hunched figure clad in black robes wrapped around herself. If she has a head it's hidden behind one of two dull metal masks, one of which has the face of a faintly smiling woman, the other looks sad and almost distraught. Both of them resemble Miriam's actual face and they almost seem to bob and weave around in ways that wouldn't quite make sense if this was a physical place.

She walks up to one of the doors and tries to open it to take a look at what lies past it.

by **Alex Maurell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 8:57 pm

"I wouldn't if I were you." a voice from down the corridor calls. It's Alex or rather a strange younger version of him. Fourteen, face far more hawkish and eyes toxic green rather than their real life counterpart. If she looked closely she'd find that his hair is more like feathers, fingers shaped like talons, and at his back a myriad of small, useless wings that fluttered and twitched.

by **Miriam Bell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 9:17 pm

"Why not? What's through there?" she asks, curiously eyeing the avian-seeming figure.

by **Alex Maurell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 9:20 pm

He narrowed his eyes at her, "Because it's not for you to see. In fact you shouldn't even be here."

by **Miriam Bell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 9:22 pm

"I was invited. But it seems that you disagree. Why is that?"

by **Alex Maurell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 9:34 pm

"You shouldn't be here! You shouldn't be here! You shouldn't-!" Shouting turned to screeching as the boy transformed into a long hawk-like creature with many wings before barreling towards her.

by **Miriam Bell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 9:42 pm

Miriam does what seems the most sensible thing to her and pushes the door open to slip through and close it before the hawk can get to her.

by **Alex Maurell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 10:40 pm

She finds herself in a school hallway, a mishmash of different school styles, which seems to be filled with the sound of whispering.

by **Miriam Bell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 10:43 pm

Miriam slowly moves down the hallway, her masks swiveling around as she tries to make out the direction the whispers are coming from.

by **Alex Maurell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 11:57 pm

The closer she seemed to get the further it moved away. A shadow ran behind her, disappearing through a wall.

by **Miriam Bell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 12:10 am

"Two can play that game..." she says and tries to trace the shadow's path in Alex' mind, trying to slip along the same mental mechanism to follow it through the wall.

by **Alex Maurell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 12:52 am

She caught up enough to see the shadow split into two, one disappearing through a chalkboard the other into the floor. They were small, amorphous blobs, barely bigger than cats.

by **Miriam Bell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 12:56 am

She swirls around in place for a moment, each mask turning the direction of one of the blobs before she decides that chasing after them is probably just going to be an exercise in frustration, whatever they are. Instead she looks around the room she ended up in to see if she can figure this place out and why Alex' bird construct hadn't wanted her to come here.

by **Alex Maurell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 1:48 am

She appears to be in a science class room, some of the desks are littered with frustrated scribblings. Some of the pages are blacked out entirely.

by **Miriam Bell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 3:25 am

She moves around the room, trying to see what kind of scribbles there are. It feels like this might be part of Alex' power and she suspects she's in a Biology classroom.

by **Alex Maurell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 3:41 am

Her suspicions are correct, in a sense. Some of the scribbles are rushed and half finished anatomy drawings, frustrated by a lack of understanding. Others are faces, blacked out by anger or sadness but if she were to touch them they'd curl up as if to protect their torn surfaces. The locked cabinets are filled with books and animal skeletons. There's a fridge in the corner of the classroom as well.

by **Miriam Bell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 3:59 am

"This must be where his mind tries to devise new constructs... Are these people you tried to make?" she mumbles and tries to pick up one of the blacked out drawings. She's wondering if they're actual people Alex knows and tries to feel out a sense of recognition and memory from the paper.

by **Alex Maurell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 4:46 am

Mother. Father. The memory of showing his parents his mutation for the first time, hoping to see the wonder on their faces that he felt during creation. But only horror marred their faces, the words demon on their lips. He was thirteen and terrified, begging them to let him stay. Swearing that he had it under control, that it wasn't a bad thing and that he wasn't evil because of it. He was still their son. The words attached to these faces, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

by **Miriam Bell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 4:59 am

She quickly drops the piece of paper as if it bit her hand, not wanting to intrude but also not eager to dwell too much on those feelings. It's a familiar one, but that doesn't dull the sting of betrayal and loss. She briefly wonders if she could destroy the paper to help Alex move past it but decides that he probably wouldn't want to forget. Still, it's tempting... She almost violently tears herself away and turns around, her cloak flaring from the sudden movement and she walks to a different desk and drawing to take her mind off of the scratched out image.

by **Alex Maurell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:32 am

Each desk is piled with similar papers. Scratched out faces and frustrated studies, only a few of those studies are human in nature. More and more it seems his dedication goes less to people and more to his mutation.

by **Miriam Bell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 6:31 am

Miriam tries to disregard the scratched out pieces, instead searching the room until she finds an unused piece of paper and a pencil. She's not a great artist and if this was a real piece of paper that might be an issue, but her mind's eye is excellent and there are enough examples around her to pull from. She sits down at one of the desks and begins sketching. The smiling mask is peering down at the paper as her hand moves the pen across the paper while the wailing mask seems to aimlessly stare at the ceiling. Slowly she creates the image of a small sparrow, losing track of time more than being in a mindscape already plays with the perception of such until she finally puts down the pencil and the other mask swivels around to look at the finished sketch. She slowly gets up, only now beginning to wonder if this was a good idea.

She pulls her robes tightly around herself until her frame diminishes more and more as she withdraws from Alex' mind. In the real world her eyes suddenly snap open as she draws in a sudden, gasping breath of air.

by **Alex Maurell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 4:29 pm

Alex awakens moments after her, eyes moist with the familiar sensation of loss and shuddering breath in his chest. He looks over at her confused and a little sad for no apparent reason. Everybody has gone silent, offering no answer to what the stranger found and for some reason he could feel guilt rolling off two of his constructs. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you around, the others were keeping me busy. What did you find?"

by **Miriam Bell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:17 pm

"I... I'm sorry. I stumbled onto some memories of your parents." she says, running her hand over her mouth before taking another sip from her wine.

by **Alex Maurell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:39 pm

"Oh..." He blinks before hurriedly wiping away the tears he didn't realize were there. He chuckles, trying to brush away the gloom, "It's alright. It's probably an old memory, no big deal." He barely talks to them any more anyway, learned long ago that he didn't need them. He didn't them to feel pride in himself or happiness. He was doing just fine on his own. Alex takes a gulp from his pint to wash down the feelings.

by **Miriam Bell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:48 pm

"But aside from that is was interesting. I found where your mind comes up with new ideas for things to create. It looked a little derelict, but that's probably just because of what you use to make your constructs."

by **Alex Maurell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 8:45 pm

"The classroom?"he asked softly.

by **Miriam Bell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 9:06 pm

"Yeah. You were aware of that?"

by **Alex Maurell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 9:24 pm

"Vaguely. Sharing a space with others kind of made me aware of how that space functions. Usually I don't go in there though."

by **Miriam Bell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 9:30 pm

She nods, then glances over at Alex. "I may have tried something when I was in there. I'm curious if it worked... I tried to come up with a design for one of your constructs to see if it'd end up among the others."

by **Alex Maurell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 10:36 pm

"Well if it did, I don't...feel it. Unfortunately, design is only the first step. The others...their personalities, who they are is secondary. It's after the birth if you will. If anything Swarm might have eaten it."

by **Miriam Bell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 10:41 pm

"Oh well, it was worth trying." she smiles.

by **Alex Maurell** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 11:39 pm

"We'll see if it's still there next time I reach for that area." He smiles, "Did you find anything else interesting?"

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