Here Again [Closed]

Oh yeah.. He completely forgot about the tournament... He decided to forget it for a reason sort of. Also there was the fact that he was dealing with a ton lately and would forget a small detail like that. His memory was never to great in the first place either. Well if he deemed it important than he would remember it, but if it was a small thing then he would forget it.

So she had a twin brother? Kearn? It was an interesting name that was for sure, but who was he to judge. He prefered to be called Magic.. Though if they were twins, and he used to go here as well that meant he had a gift to, and he more than likely shared a gift with his twin sister. "So I'm guessing you two have the same gift." Vince and him were kind of an exception seeing how they were only half brothers..

Speaking of Vincent he should probably tell her where he went. "Oh yeah.. That reminds me. Vincent quit school here.. He didn't really care for developing his power. He returned home, and is taking some culinary classes now. Though he is staying with a few friends instead of living with that Bitch. So I guess that means he is sort of taking my side now..." Magic siad rambling a bit.

Gift, they were bringing that subject back up. Again. Was Magic going to ask about it? With another timid nod, her eyes instinctively glanced over at her right shoulder and she listened into the tick-tock in the background, the one always ringing in the back of her head. It was always with her, never stopping, and a personal reference to remind herself that she was just a time bomb and each passing day, each passing minute, each passing second, was one step closer to detonating and vanishing into thin air. "Y-yes... I-It's the s-s-same." He already knew it had to do with time, and her last name was enough proof already to confirm that. There were only so many abilities that involved the temporal dimension that Magic could probably narrow it down without her having to say a word; most people would jump straight to chronokinesis and it was close enough. Time Theft was a name that was rarely, if ever, mentioned. She'd give him an answer if he asked, but only if he asked.

Selfish, egocentric, how much further could she go? Blinking at the mention of Vince, Adeline was almost ready to believe that Magic was reading her mind with his gift in some eccentric manner that she wouldn't be able to figure out. But that was really silly. After all, sound waves couldn't do that. If they could, he wouldn't be asking her all of these questions and would be digging through her head to snatch whatever information he needed. Then again, Magic could already know everything and was only playing along with some stupid prank or trick with Fate. You're absolutely stupid. Goddamn, she was wandering and looking into this too much. There wasn't any fancy magic trick he was performing... it wasn't like trumpets were going to blare and confetti was going to fly everywhere to announce that she was being the oblivious idiot she always was.

"O-oh." Vince never really struck her as a chef, but given his gift and the fact that he was the one who provided the food at Aspen's birthday party, it wasn't completely out there. With a fire like his, he could control whether it would burn or not in such subtle manners. Wouldn't surprise her if he became a master chef in the future and was on television news all the time. It fit his personality. Or what she thought about him.

"So both of your gifts have to do with time.." He knew it wasn't chronokinesis or anything like that.. She would have probably reconstructed the airport after he destroyed it.. At least thats how he thought that gift worked anyway.. But she could heal people with it.. and it was dangerous to touch her.. "Time.." He repeated as he thought.. He couldn't quite name what he was thinking of for some reason. "Are you able to steal time from people? And some how give it back?" Thinking of how she could heal people.. well 'heal'.. He was more so testing his boundaries with his questions. Trying to see what she would answer..

Damn, it didn't take him that long to put all the pieces together. Her mind blanked, the ghost of a smile still plastered on her face as her lips stayed sealed shut, and she didn't respond. This was something that didn't take people that long to figure out once she gave a few details. It wasn't something that she tried hard to hide. The whole thing was broken, shattered like glass in a matter of three minutes. Or was it longer? She didn't want to time it and keep track. One mistake and she got caught out and every secret she ever wanted to keep was being dissected and forced out of her. It was just a simple truth that everyone looked over at the end of the day because nobody bothered to notice it. Why would they? Another trivial, stupid thing that people shouldn't have to think about it.

The room had shifted into an awkward, uncomfortable stillness. She didn't want to say anything, to confirm his hypothesis and let everything else fall downhill. Magic would know he was right if she didn't answer and even if there was just a peep, he'd hear it in her voice. So she opted not to answer. He'd gotten it right either way. If anything, it was better that she didn't try to answer, didn't try to confirm it. Maybe there was the off-chance that he would rethink it and they would move on. But her actions contradicted her thoughts as another soft giggle filled the room, and the words came out.

"Pl-please, keep th-th-this all a s-secret..."

He figured out the theft portion of her gift. Was he figuring out that she had been throwing away her own life behind his back now too?

Fuck this.

Kearn was going to kill her the moment he got word of what she's been doing. Adeline was half-tempted to not reply to his letter again, but after that call, she couldn't find the courage to do so. This wasn't fair for everyone else, having to deal with all of her stupidity and clumsiness and problems. Just once, she wanted to try and shoulder it alone and try and help others without letting them think she had her own conflicts to solve. To play that hero who had no wrong and was worry-free. That wasn't her role, though. Not in this story or any other. It never would be; it was reserved for someone else.

It wasn't hard for him to piece together.. Honestly he was observant, and smarter than he lead on sometimes. There was a reason he had a lot of books scattered about his room. Most of the time he would get bored, and end up studying one of the scientific books he randomly had, thinking things through. Reading those books was something he picked up a couple years before he came to the school. It was because of those books that he was more observant now. But because of all his reading he had to wear reading glasses from time to time.

So he was right about his guess. "I wasn't planning on telling anyone. It's not my gift, so it's not my place to tell." He looked up, retreating to his thoughts once again. So that was how she killed people before.. Yeah he understood now.. but it was all an accident wasn't it? Not like she intended to kill them.. Not like he had with a few people before.. then the airport happened, and he broke the one rule he set for himself... and then to only make matters worse that very night he killed a few enemy gang members cause he could.. and then killed the enemy gang leader..(Will get you that story later) He was actually a murderer now.

"I'm guessing that nightmare you had that one night was about your gifts abilites? And some other things having to do with that?" He asked. He could understand why she would have nightmares about it. He still had nightmares about things.. It was something that neither of them could stop.

"S-something along th-th-those l-lines..." was her rather plain answer. He still remembered that night. Dammit. It would've been much nicer if he had just forgotten it all, let it fade away into the dark. The fact that she even gave him the necklace or the nightmare or anything else they did that day. That was all a jumbled up mess, tangled to bits and pieces that didn't correlate with one another. Awful, screwed up, a plethora of stupid things that happened because she had decided to be vague as hell and say things that would've led to bad consequences.

Her smile died a little as she glanced at one hand, which was now held out in front of her. Neverending, dripping blood red. And then there was the school-wide assessment to be completed where she had... done it again. The ending was happier than she deserved; it shouldn't have gone that way. Staff took mercy and manipulated it back then. She didn't want the sympathy. It meant interrogations such as this later. With a quiet sigh, Adeline traced the smooth surface of the piano with one of her fingers, unwilling to look him in the eye.

She was going to regret it, but... "It w-was something like... the E-Evaluation." A living nightmare. Complete, living nightmares. "I d-don't... want to go thr-through th-th-that again."

I'm scared.

He understood the whole evaluation thing.. He didn't like what they had given him.. being force to kill his best friend... He was glad about one thing though. He was glad that he didn't have to kill Lamia while going through that tower.. "I understand that..." He didn't like his evaluation so much he decided to jump out of the window, and flee the school building for a bit.

Most his nightmares didn't really effect him anymore, it was always the same reminding him of his mistakes..Not to mention his madness. Even though his madness didn't effect him to much anymore, when he went to sleep it made sure to make an appearance. He still had trouble sleeping in general, but he always had trouble sleeping so that wasn't new to him.

He forgot he was sitting on the floor for a second, and when he remembered he stood up. He sat down on the piano bench, letting his hands trace over the piano keys slightly. "I don't have anymore questions for now.. You got any questions for me?" He asked. Though she had all of the answers she wanted.

Magic had gotten it lucky, only having to kill Laine once. No offense to him, but it was far more fortunate than cycling through deaths over and over again in a different method with each choice you made determining who was the next to go, whether by your hands or someone else's. Even after possible attempted suicide during said illusion, it was just adding more and more to her death counter, fake or not. Adeline wasn't sure whether her lack of sleep had come from experiencing that or because she never knew when she felt tired or because she didn't want nightmares. It was just one thing after another, piling on. She was glad that he didn't bother asking about her self-timer or any side-effects of her gift... or anything along those lines. All he knew was fatigue and feeling weak afterwards - it was all he should know.

When he walked over to the piano bench and took a seat right next to her, she flinched a bit. He figured out her gift and was still taking the risk to get in close proximity? Was he messing with her? With a small shaky breath, she reopened the binder and placed it back on the music rack, skipping the first page and flipping through. Soon, it stopped on one song, the sheet music designated with sections for a duet but there was no writing on it. The title at the top read Howl's Moving Castle (Duet Ver.) in dark, bold font and notes were scattered throughout. Moving closer to the treble clef section and readjusting herself, her hands hovered over the piano for a few moments, debating whether she wanted to go through with this. Kearn asked her to relax, didn't he? This was the one song that got close enough to that for her, but he wasn't there to play with her.

It was a selfish request for her own benefit. With a dismissive gesture and an inscrutable "N-no", she opted to glance at Magic and locked her eyes with his, the blue almost dull and without shine yet bright at once. A hesitant look crossed her features as she rethought about this, but mustering up whatever courage she had left in her, Adeline finally spoke up (in her normal volume, mind you), "I h-hate a-a-asking this, but... uhm... c-could you tr-try and pl-play this w-with me?"

Play that? He studied the piece for a moment.. Yeah he should be able to play that but he would most likely screw it up somehow... He kept looking at it for a while making sure he could play the more difficult stuff without hesitation.. "Yeah. I can play it with you." He wasn't going to bring up that it would probably sound bad seeing how he needed to get used to reading music again but he would try his best. He placed his hands on his part of the keys, and looked over at her slightly. He was waiting on her to tell him when they would start playing.

To say that she had thought this entire thing through would be a mistake; hell, she had no idea what she was doing, asking for this and it was something that came up on the spur of the moment. It didn’t make the situation any worse. What compelled her this time outside her own selfishness? Was there even anything else? Her fingers lingered on the keys in position, waiting and hesitating, lips thinning. Stop wasting time. The words already slipped out and he already agreed. Backing out now would be pathetic, cowardly, and played out like a jerkass move - too bad those complimented her nature perfectly and the growing temptation to forget this nonsense of hers was growing.

She kept her hands frozen over the keys, a blank stare watching them as the only sounds emitting through the room were the crisp draft of the air conditioner and soft, shallow breaths. Her body was trembling with hesitation and reluctance. It was really stupid to have done this. She was lucky the first time she played that nothing slipped, but playing a duet? She couldn’t fucking feel anything. No way she could keep her eyes on the keys and sheet at the same time. It wouldn’t alternate fast enough. As if to spite her, her smile remained unwavering as her fingers pressed down on the keys, the melancholic notes echoing from the walls. A series of eighth notes cascaded downward before prompting to a stop on a discordant chord, the sounds rubbing against each other in a clash. One measure of rest as he played his part. The song was in rubato, so their tempo didn’t matter all that much - it was adjustable. Most of the notes in the beginning were rather simple for her part and everything with Magic’s side were dotted half notes or half notes with rest. Easy enough, right?

Neither part collided with one another, the arpeggiated notes gently breaking the melody apart and leaving a soft overlap. Bittersweetness filled the room, resonating from their improvised performance. The haunting melody eerily crept around yet filled her hands, almost like golden lights were fluttering around them and leaving her in an unbroken spell and all those who heard it. Like an enchantress. A sorceress. A witch. How fitting.

The swirling motions came of as grand, stately, resolute and continued to grow in volume over time before coming to an elegant and charming whirlwind unison of notes. An elusive, enigmatic stream of music freeing itself from the piano, springing to life and breaking free from her playing and working on its own. She wasn’t the one performing the piece - it was like chiseling a block of stone and letting the creature inside it to fly free; nothing was wrong, the world in a stasis with only her fingers working on the piano. Slowly, one hand floated over, crossing over and the notes marched up an octave. Velvety, silken mixtures came together, the glittering white and black keys reflecting the light from above. Misty harmonies and foggy bass lines, the song rushed together and blew away like the wind, coming and going as it came and disappeared into nothingness. A thunderstorm of chords whispered to one another.

Everything seemed to be slowing and dramatically enhancing itself, even if it was only because Magic was trying to figure out the notes before they could go on. It left a different kind of effect - not one that was bad but not one that was necessarily the best. By far, it left a dreamy atmosphere that was both bizarre and surreal. Perhaps it was the way they played. Or it was hearing or the fact that he was sightreading the song and trying to play after ten years of not seeing these kinds of papers. By the time they had reached the very end, her spirits felt a little more uplifted, a quiet sigh leaving her lips.

It had been too long since she had played a duet - she didn't remember that the players always got so close in proximity that they would brush against one another in certain movements. Maybe it was better that she didn't feel it. The song was just like a waltz, sweeping her off her feet as she had let the sounds enrapture her in and play quietly in her own little world. There were times she had wanted to jump ahead, no denying it.

But this was something she didn't want to change nor forget about. All of it was akin to a masterpiece, no matter how mundane or quaint others might've believed it was.

When Lamia started the song a slight nervousness filled him. He didn't really want to ruin the song at all, but even so he had already agreed to playing it. It was too late now to back out. He came into the song when he was supposed to. He relaxed at little as he listened to the two of them play. He tapped his foot to keep tempo so that way he wouldn't lose the tempo.

He could feel it when he occasionally brushed against Lamia, or should he say Adeline? It was just the fault of playing a duet together. He completely forgot that it would happen though. A slight blush dusted his face but it wasn't too noticeable.

He felt slightly relieved when the song was finally over. Now he no longer had the chance of messing it up. He messed up a little bit, any time he did, he would flinch a little bit despite if the mistake was noticeable to Adeline. His super hearing allowed him to hear every little mistake or mess up he made. He would sit back and relax more at the moment, but there was nothing to lean on unless he wanted to lean on Adeline. But that would be a bad idea. Instead he just slouched slightly. "Well that was fun." He said to her.

With a slight glimpse towards Magic, she saw the way his face had grown slightly red and a tiny frown of concern etched across her features. She hadn't taken into account the possibility that it was because of her that he was blushing - let alone that it was blush - and the way he slouched wasn't helping. From his posture to need to relax, it was almost like he had exhausted himself from their miniature recital or was growing sick. The back of her hand came up to his forehead, brushing away dark strands of hair which only seemed even darker against her pallid skin. Adeline leaned in a bit, taking care of not to get too close but enough to diminish the distance between them that she could keep a steady hold at the top of his head without having to awkwardly stretch. Fevers had a tendency to reduce lifespans by a smidgen and the decay rate was only slightly faster, but it was enough. He didn't need to know this aspect; the major disadvantage here would be that she would now have an estimated time of when he'd die. "A-are you f-feeling s-s-sick?" Her skin was cold with scarcely any heat emitting from it and the only thing to reassure herself that she was actually 'checking' his temperature was that she could see it with her own eyes.

His comment from before didn't go unnoticed. Someone had fun with one of her suggestions. That was new - she as positive Kearn only did things with her because she asked and he wouldn't want to disagree. Then again, their interests were rather similar, only her twin's was much more broad and varied in comparison to her limited hobbies. Most people thought everything she did was so bland and uneventful that Adeline had stopped trying to ask to do something and went with the majority rule. Go with the flow kind of person. Was he messing with her? Another trick? Possibly. He was the type who enjoyed music, though, so it didn't seem completely far-fetched. But how could she know that without asking? Trying to question it would only make him think she lacked trust in him again, so she had immediately banished the thought into the void.

Everyone else's interests and well-being before her own. That was how it always would be. It was selfish to think about what she wanted to do; she could control her gift while monitoring his health. The only reason she trusted herself just a bit to get close. From a quick analysis, she wanted to deduce that he wasn't running a fever. Only way to find out for sure was for him to answer.

Magic's face only got slightly redder the closer she came. His eyes followed her hand as it approached his head, and brushed his hair away from his forehead. When she asked if he was feeling sick, the blush went away. So that was only what she was doing. Okay he was fine with that. Y-yeah. I'm fine." He couldn't help but stutter slightly. He stood up off the bench, and walked a small distance away, he didn't need to be too close. It would only end up with more blushing from him. At least it didn't cross her mind as blushing. Though he couldn't explain why he was blushing to her. That would probably end badly.

Slowly, she lowered her hand and drew it into her chest, the other one resting atop the piano. He wasn't sick or anything. A soft sigh of relief escaped and when she looked up a bit, Magic had gotten up and extended their distance. Adeline blinked in surprise, turmoil brewing within her mind. Had he done that because he figured out her trick and wanted to pretend everything was alright? Or was it because he had been lying and didn't actually enjoy playing with her? Oh, there was the problem. If he had been using the piano on his own, then of course he would enjoy it. The moment she got involved, it slid downhill. That's why he moved away. She kept a small smile on her face, shifting uncomfortably on the wooden bench. "Th-that's a r-relief..." Hopefully, anyway. The time was ticking well past midnight and they were still up; at least it was normal for her, but for Magic? She didn't think so. He always seemed so tired and exhausted by the end of the day. The door wasn't unlocking until maybe 6:30 minimum. Did he plan to stay up all night?

Not feeling anything meant not ever feeling fatigued or the need for sleep - she could stay up all day and night and still seem normal the following days or weeks or months. Adeline wasn't even sure if she wanted to figure out how long it had been since she lost that sense. Finding out made it worse in hindsight. Then the thought came to mind. She reached into her bag, pulling out a binder and carefully snatching a handful of papers. "O-oh, uhm..." How was she supposed to say this again? 'The time before you went insane?' sounded too... demeaning. Was that the right word? Trying to put her thoughts into words was always difficult. Talking in general was never easy. She was always terrible at holding a conversation and never said much unless it was absolutely required or she felt the need to explain herself in some manner for clarification.

"Wh-while you w-were gone... I uhm..." The last sheet of paper was taken out from her folder, and it almost look like she had been trying to stall time with how long it took to take it out. "Took notes f-for you. S-s-sorry I couldn't g-get some for math... I-I'm in a lower l-level th-than you." Math had always been her weakest subject - it made her already abysmal grades look decent to a certain extent. Hell, she barely passed last year, only after receiving multiple remedial lessons.

No it wasn't his intention to make her think he didn't enjoy playing together. Honestly he really did enjoy it. He would rather not explain why he was blushing that was all. The boy took a moment to stretch slightly. He could tell it was getting late. He didn't even know the exact time, but he could tell it was around midnight. He was used to staying up all night and could easily do it, but he hadn't been getting much sleep lately so it was taking a toll. He would probably end up falling asleep at some point in the night, but it wouldn't last long before he would wake up with a sharp gasp, or a small scream or something. Who knows what would happen this time?

Notes? Oh yeah.. He hadn't been going to very many classes lately. He would only attend the occasional class so it would make sense that he would need notes... He made it at least to every one of his classes at least once a week. He always avoided literature.. And there was the good amount of time after the vacation, and well.. yeah.. The winter boy hated literature with a passion. He just didn't get it at all. Why did they have to know how to analyze a fuckin book? Not like he was gonna go pick up a book and wonder why a certain character said a certain thing at a certain moment.. The only books he would analyze would be a scientific book.. Those were straight forward. And unlike Adeline his strongest subject was Math.

Magic blinked, and stepped forward again to grab the notes from her. Once he had them, he decided to look at them. Yeah they were all there. "Thanks." He shuffled through the papers, but paused when he came across the science notes. Physics to be exact. He stared at the paper for a little while figuring out what they were doing. It seemed like they were messing around with force diagrams, and unbalanced forces.. Yeah it was pretty easy. At least to him anyway. The boy sat back down next to Adeline again staring at the pages. He never really understood why he liked the stuff, but he did. And it wasn't gonna go away anytime soon.