week 4

[airlockedmods]

[Just like the previous week the status quo is restored with frighteningly quick efficiency. PAL still makes the morning and night time announcements through the PIP on each Champion's arm, and still the Champion unitards are freshly laundered and re-hung each morning in their closets. Even the glass roses Choromatsu and Takumi broke after the trial in their fit of anger have been replaced with fresh ones. All signs that there was anything amiss this weekend are completely gone.

There's a new floor to explore, their "reward" for a job well done.]

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday



[ooc: Don't forget to to turn in your AC for week 3, submit your memory regains and put in your threads for the Benefactors!]

Comments

[goteachother]

[Panicked yelps are not good. Definitely not good. Queenie's knocking on the door from the bathroom to Angel's room. It isn't until she lifts her hand to tap on the door that she notices the vibrant blue swirls creeping down her arm.]

What on earth?!

[brokencode]

[If not for Queenie's own utterance, Angel might have tried to ignore the woman on the other end of the door for as long as it took for her to figure out what was going on. As it is, something sounds wrong on her part, too, and Angel certainly couldn't let anything happen to Queenie.

The surprise waiting for her on the other side of the door was both unexpected and gut-wrenching. It felt like looking in a mirror, in some ways. The blue tattoos were exactly how she remembered them, after all.]

Queenie... What's going on? How did you --

[goteachother]

[She stares at her hand for a moment, then past her fingers to Angel... and the lack of these very tattoos on her, eyes wide with shock.]

I didn'!

[But how!?

She spins around and flicks her hand in a familiar motion, even if her wand is on the counter beside the sink.

Nothing happens. Nothing lifts to her call, nothing moves, nothing.

Except the overhead light dims faintly and the ink on her arm glows softly, flickering brighter at her surprise only to dim back out as soon as she looks at it.]

[brokencode]

[The flickering of the lights brought Angel back to her senses. Much as she might have liked to stay in a fantasyscape and pretend this wasn't happening, Queenie needed her in this moment. And after all the woman had done for her, it was time Angel paid it forward.

Her fingers reached up to her neck, unclipping the collar and wrenching it free of her neck. She held it out to the woman with a trembling hand.]

Take this. It will help. I... don't know how, but it keeps my powers in check. It will help, I promise.

[goteachother]

[She turns back to look at Angel, gaze flickering from her newly inked hand to the collar being offered to her. It's a hard call. She knows Angel is terrified of herself, of her abilities, that she did something terrible once. But she also knows that no one has any really significant access to their abilities.

And she has a lot more practice with carefully refined control than Angel does.

She's curious, she wants to explore this strange new power, see if with this she can stretch her mental and magical "muscles" so to speak in ways she hasn't been able to in weeks now.

But she doesn't want to scare Angel or worry her or, heaven forbid, hurt anyone.]

Maybe we can... see just how much of it PAL gave me, first?

[Shackles that bind a witch's magic is something straight out of the Witch Trials. If she can get away without wearing that she's going to.]

[brokencode]

It is not worth the risk, Queenie. Please.

[She motioned with her outstretched hand once more, hoping that the woman might not see the tremble there. Even as she stared forward, her mind slipped backward, sifting through memories that she had desperately tried to bury. She shouldn't have heard anything other than their simultaneous breathing.

Instead she heard screams, both hers and another.]

It is safer this way. Both you or I could get hurt if you don't.

[How fitting that would be, if she met her end by her own powers.]

[goteachother]

I don' wanna hurt no one, you know that.

[But that collar... it's hideous and wrong and everything she's been taught to fear from no-majs her whole life.]

How would I hurt someone? Tell me, please?

I... I know this is scary for you but that thing is scary for me, okay? Maybe we can... compromise?

[brokencode]

[There was a part of Angel that wanted to keep arguing, to insist that the collar was necessary, for both her own safety and for Queenie's. But there was an urgency in her friend's words, one that made the siren quickly relent, made her back off of the point at least for the time being.]

Okay. We can... try. In the bathroom, where there's no one else.

[Without waiting for a response, Angel began to push past the woman, into the small washroom. Her first instinct was to lock the door leading into Queenie and Nari's room. Once that was done, she looked to Queenie to do the same for her own room.]

[goteachother]

Okay... alright. [She was quick to step aside for Angel, following her lead and locking the other door.

Then she just kind of stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, thankful for the large space to work with but also trying to remember everything Angel has ever said about her powers.

Mostly she was just coming up with a lot of fear... she just didn't really understand what of.]

We'll be careful, I promise.

[brokencode]

Okay. [She nodded, looking somewhat unconvinced. This was a horrible idea, even trusting her powers to behave itself. She wanted to give Queenie the benefit of the doubt though. And she certainly didn't want to see her uncomfortable or upset with the collar.]

We can start with a simple question. How are you feeling. What are you feeling?

[goteachother]

Fine? um... a little worried now, I suppose.

[She should tell, Angel. Really she should... just maybe after they've had a few to get this a little more under control. She's pretty sure if she mentions that she's on her period right now Angel's head will explode and she'll end up in shackles to match the collar.]

I mean aside from this it's been a good morning. I... finished the lace piece I was makin for-

for Finn.

[brokencode]

Sorry...

[Right. As the experienced siren, Angel needed to have some measure of calm. For Queenie's sake. She took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then let it out. Right now, she was more in control than she ever had been. Such a fact needed to be taken advantage of while it still could be.]

Okay. You need to keep your mind clear. These powers you have now are reactive. The more upset you are, the less control you will have. Does that make sense?

[goteachother]

Sounds like most powers, really? My magic's the same way.

[Not that you could tell from looking at her. But there had been a few little accidents here and there. Usually when she was very overwhelmed... usually when someone was overwhelming her.]

's why I've been leaving cooking after... a-after the "rose ceremonies" to someone else.

[Not that it's dangerous but she's not steady enough to be able to cook reliably.]

[brokencode]

Abilities like these are not common where I am from. Certainly, some can be manufactured through technology. But something linked implicitly to me? To everything I feel? Not at all.

[Angel extended a hand, resting it on Queenie's tattooed arm. She was scared, just in the way she was scared of herself, but right now she was all the woman had. She had to be strong, that much was certain.]

And... from what I have gleaned from the others, most powers won't cause explosions or short out life support if things go wrong. It is... less that I am unlike anyone else, and more that what I can do can cause far worse damage.