DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Alternate Reality PHX: Phoenix Reform Academy Cadence and the Lair of Eric.

Soon cadence had been fed and found herself walking beside Mariel towards the elevator that went down underground, to the testing chamber.

“Down there, Cadence is where I first came to understand what you know. That the one in charge of your care was no parent. Understand that Eric himself was a parent - an actual parent, if an awkward one, and that was taken from him. He was never socially apt even before that, but the loss of his daughter affected him. As Grey might put it ‘he lies to himself every day to convince himself that he isn’t vulnerable to growing close. Yet in the end, he is here when he had every opportunity to be with those you have left behind. That choice was very important. We all have our wounds. He carries his closer to the surface.”

Cadence Marie Weathers
Forsaken

Cadence wasn't sure she understood what Mariel was telling her. The woman sometimes imparted her 'lessons' and wisdom in cryptic ways. A 17 year old Texas Cheerleader didn't have the breadth and depth of life experiences to grasp the layers of meaning that might be going over her head right now. But, she was smart enough to recognize the Mariel was telling her more than the simple meaning of the words themselves.

The closer they got to the elevator the more her anxiety was building. The fear she felt that first night, that she masked so readily with anger and insolence, was rising in increments that came in equal measure to the steps she took toward the sliding door. Once inside, Mariel's words echoing in her head, Cadence Stepped in and put her back to the wall. She felt very small and insignificant. She felt very alone.

Without a spoken word reached out tentatively to slip a hand into Mariel as the elevator doors closed.

She takes the hand then pats it.

“I guess what I’m saying, Cadence, is he’s got his own damage, you lost your real parents, he lost his real daughter. He blames himself for that, and if he’s awkward around you that may be part of the reason. He doesn’t like getting close to people because people get hurt. If you can, cut him some slack.”

The elevator trip was long.

“I used to really hate this room. Felt like a lab experiment. Please tell me if I start doing that to you.”

The door slides open and Carver and Grey are off to one side talking, Eric is sitting in front of a computer looking intently at a screen.

Cadence Marie Weathers
Forsaken

Mariel had no desire to be antagonistic toward anyone. In some small hope, Cadence wished that it was just going to be Eric and Mariel in that testing room.

There was little else to say all the way down. Why? Why was this room so far below ground? So no one would hear the screams?

Thoughts like that only furthered Cadence's anxiety.She closed her eyes to clear her mind, to think of nothing at all, but that gave her a slightly nauseous feeling as the elevator descended deep into the earth. At least it felt like they were making one of of Jules Verne kind of trips.

Finally, mercifully, it ended and the doors opened. Seeing Carver and Grey was not the worst possible outcome, though she imagined that it might still get worse now. She did not let go of Mariel's hand either. She had committed to this cour5se of action but she wanted the support in case her courage faltered. A step into the room and she could see Eric as well, though he seemed preoccupied with whatever was on the computer screen. Maybe it was showing him some information about her even as she walked into the room. Then again, that seemed a rather self-absorbed assumption. Or maybe it was just her anxiety trying to provoke another fight or flight response.

Cadence tightened her grip on Mariel's hand to try to find her own center.

(Sorry this took a bit. Been distracted this week with the pet situation)

Eric looks up.

“Cadence.”

He says, not looking right at her.

“I’m glad you’re here. It means I might be able to help you.”

Carver nods to her, as does Grey.

“If you are amenable, Cadence, and ONY if you are, I would propose that I might piggyback Carver into your senses, see if he might be able to see what you see. I will absolutely not do this without your permission.”

Says Grey.

Cadence Marie Weathers
Forsaken

Cadence glances at Mariel as Eric says her name, and then her attention focuses on him. She nods with her lips pursed tightly as he mentions helping her. Then to Carver and finally Grey, who says the most. She had something she wanted to say. Something she needed to say. She hadn't told Mariel she was going to do this, but once the newness of her entry into the room was over she spoke.

"Ummm... First... ummm... I want to say I'm sorry for how I acted when... well, when I first came here and met ya'll down here before. The last nine months were real hard, and it changed me... but I still shouldn't have taken it out on all of you. It's now how I was raised, and I forgot who I was ... before... You know... Alchemy and Nyx."

"I did something terrible, and I... I can't change that. I have to live with it... but, I think I want to try to be better and not... well you know... kill myself or anyone else. So Thank you for being patient with me." She hugged the book as she looked to Mariel.

Cadence looked around the room, trying to overcome the nerves. Her mouth felt so dry. "I'm gonna be honest right now, this place gives me the creeps... But when we were here last I swore I'd never touch my powers again... That's actually not possible for me... I feel them and see them all them all the time. I can try to ignore them, but I can't turn it off... But, well... I'm here to help all of you too, because you need to understand what Alchemy had me do when we were at the prison... and I think you need to know it soon... And then... ummm, then maybe you can help me too."

When all the jumbled words in her head had come out into the open, and she had said what she needed to say, Cadence looked to Grey again and nodded in acceptance.

"That's fine Miss Grey. I would also be willing to take anyone... everyone... well, one at a time... into the place I call the 'Middle'. I'm not sure that's possible unless you have Dark Matter or Dark Energy powers to begin with... but I can convert my clothes and anything I'm carrying... But I don't want to hurt anyone. Just not sure I can do living things... yet."

"But I will try to do whatever you need me to do..."

Eric is the first to speak.

“Cadence, I don’t believe you need to apologize for anything. The position you have been put in is unfair for anyone, and even more unfair for one your age. You should be worrying about school and friends. You shouldn’t be worried about being studied, poked and prodded by the likes of me. But … here we are.”

He frowns a bit awkwardly, then pulls out what looks like a small disc attached to a sticky pad.

“If you can wear this on your temple, it will monitor your vital signs …”

Cadence Marie Weathers
Forsaken

Cadence nodded in acceptance of Eric's words. 'Here' they were indeed. But worrying about school and friends? Grief was a better word. It was an emotion she was still struggling to process in the slow return to a more normal life again. But 'normal' was subjective now, wasn't it? At least it wasn't the hell that had been her 'normal' with Alchemy. So, this new 'normal' had to be better, right? It was probably going to be the best she would know now that her mutant powers(or whatever they were) had been awakened by her biological mother.

These people here were just doing their best to give some screwed up kids like her a chance at some kind of life again. Besides, what point was there reminding them that Alchemy had taken everything from her, destroyed her previous life, and killed everyone she cared about in order to make Cadence solely dependent upon her for survival... for 9 months. They already knew this about her.

And then cadence realized she was letting her darker thoughts and emotions spiral again. It was so hard to rein them in, but she had to keep trying.

Cadence nodded again as Eric proffered the sensor device he wanted her to wear. She then offered Mariel the book for safekeeping and took the sticky disc. Confirming the location he wanted it placed, cadence applied the device to her temple.

"I can convert my clothes and things like that... so maybe this will be fine too. But, I don't know if it will work there. I never tried anything electronic. Alchemy wouldn't let me have a phone or even a watch...I wasn't allowed to know what day or what time it was."

Mariel

“So what we are planning to do, Cadence, is relatively simple this time around. You are going to make your transition, while I try to ride along, perhaps aiding by phasing myself. Meanwhile, Grey is going to hitch Carver along with you mentally. Eric is going to monitor things from here. Does all of this make sense?”

Cadence Marie Weathers
Forsaken

Cadence nodded and shrugged at the same time.

"Yes, Miss Mariel," she replied. "I think so. You want me to take you into the 'middle'. So... Ummm... You can't let go even if it feels weird when I shift us there. Everyone here will still see us, or maybe just me. I don't know. I've never really taken anyone else. Alchemy tried to look into it by holding on, but I don't think she can shift or phase any of the dark matter and energy in her. I can be in all four states at once. And that can mess with your head. It can still make me nauseous if I'm not careful because things aren't the same and there's different rules too. Seeing all four at once... well, it took some getting used to. Please don't let go."

Mariel:

“Oh, Cadence. If there is one thing I will never do, it is let go without you wanting me to.”

Something in her tone suggested more than the merely literal - and it was accompanied by a brief squeeze.

“I think, in this area at least, my ability is more applicable than hers.”

She leads her to the center of the room, behind the shielding.

Grey looks at her.

“I am connecting, merely to your senses. If you feel any presence where you do not wish it, think at me, and I will back away. I am establishing the link … now.

She feels a slight tingle in the back of her head, and what feels almost like a very slight pressure, which subsides.

“The connection has been made. Both I, and through me Carver, should be sharing your senses. If at any time you wish us gone, think that at me and I will break the connection.

Eric speaks.

“You let me know when you are ready.”

Cadence Marie Weathers
Forsaken

Cadence nodded toward Mariel and followed where she was led.

She tips her head a little at Grey's entrance into her mind. She really couldn't sense Grey's consciousness, but just the sensation of her felt like a tingling ripple that coursed through her. Before she could respond to grey, Eric spoke and she listened. Before answering him she looked back to Grey.

"It's okay if you do whatever you need to do with your mind to learn what you need. I know you would not hurt me on purpose, and that's a much better feeling than I've had with people who wanted to know how my powers work since I've had them.So do what you need to... I'll be good."

And then she turned her attention to Eric.

"It's always on for me Mr Eric... I'm ready," she replied as she reached out to Mariel to take a hold of her.

Mariel reaches out and takes hold, and she feels the phase start to take effect as she suffuses herself, and the purple flickers through her, coursing.

“I am ready, when you are.”

Cadence Marie Weathers
Forsaken

Cadence offered a nod to the others assembled in the room, and then focuses her attention back on her Aunt.

"Okay... Here we go."

Her gripped tightened and she shifted herself to match Mariel and then moved them into what she called the middle. If this went well, and Mariel didn't freak (not that she expected her to do that) or simply get the reaction she herself had when she first entered, throwing up, then she would consider moving them into Dark Energy or Dark Matter after that.


The middle, as Cadence viewed it was the place where she touched all of the four 'realities' (She wished she had a better word for it) but they way she felt inside there was that she was a part of all of them at once and none of them at the same time. Words couldn't capture the sensory overload that was coming. For those watching, they would still see Cadence and the phased Mariel, but it would appear as if they were looking at them through a filter or a gauze layer. Indistinct with wavering edges. The energies that flowed around them would be immediately recognizable to everyone in the room. They had all seen her in this state as she floated just off the ground on the hill that overlooked the prison on that terrible night not so long ago. It was when she was manipulating the various energies to do Alchemy's instructed bidding, and from where she knocked the flying super from the sky when he approached to engage. It was also the state of being from where she unleashed the dark energy/dark matter blast at Alchemy that resulted in the death's of her hostages.

The purple suffused everything as usual, but for the first time she was seeing someone else here as well as herself, and could see the energies flowing around and through her, interacting in a way that it interacted with few others. She felt the presence still at the back of her brain of Carver and Grey.

Mariel broke the silence.

“This is … fascinating. And terrifying.”

She moves her unoccupied hand around creating ripples.

Then, Cadence looking at Eric, sees almost a null spot around him, as if he were repulsing the energy flow, diverting it around him. Grey, now that she was actually looking at her was an oddly structured mess, touching on the energies but in an extremely ordered fashion, and lightly.

Carver’s thoughts manifest in her head.

“So when you have done things in the past, do you have to be here? Only here for larger amounts of energy or certain effects? When Mariel, for example, interacts she doesn’t come here on her own.”

Cadence Marie Weathers
Forsaken

Mariel's words would sound hollow, diffused, as Aunt and Niece stood within the ambient energies where Cadence had shifted them. She nodded in agreement at the mention of terrifying. "I had no one to help me understand it, and the two that were making me learn it weren't interested in helping... they just wanted results."

Cadence doesn't try to hide anything in her thoughts. Grey would sense her anxieties about how dangerous this was. She would also feel that cadence felt in control and comfortable... just a little anxious. The thought that if Mariel and her were separated in the 'middle' place was a little worrisome, but Cadence felt that Mariel would simply slip back into the 'real world' she knew since they hadn't really entered one of the other states in full. Grey would sense that while Cadence believed that is what would happen, the young woman didn't know for sure since she had never taken anyone in with her before.

Outwardly, Cadence tightened her grip on Mariel a little more.

Hearing Carver's questions, Cadence nodded in reply to the first one, then realized they might not see her so clearly in the purple energies that flowed around them. "Yes. From here I can feel all the states, even though I see them all the time... even when I'm not here. I have to concentrate a little... not hard to keep focused on the regular matter state." When i want to do... bigger things, I tap into one or more of the states... like the fight at the prison... Hard to explain... I can actually go into each state and become each state and it's like I exist only there, just like I am normally in this one with ya'll. But the middle is where I can weave things together... but I really only know how to destroy things... to use it like a weapon."

The angst comes through in a light wash as Cadence speaks and thinks those last words.

Mariel:

“So wher, in this, do you think Hadassha might fit in? What, then, is it that is happening with her? What is she tapping? Is there a conduit to … here which is drawing and tapping energy and channeling it into here? Is she flitting between states almost like she is … tunneling?”

Cadence Marie Weathers
Forsaken

Hearing the words of Mariel brought Cadence's attention back to the immediate circumstances of where she and her 'Aunt' were standing.The questions caught her off-guard because she hadn't thought about Hadasha's situation since coming down to this deep basement testing area, and maybe even before that. Cadence could only shrug in response. She had wanted to read the book first and talk more to Hadasha, then investigate things, before trying to come up with a real opinion.

The truth of it, to be blunt, was that Cadence could do what she could do, but she didn't fully understand the how or the why. The book would help. Practicing more would help a lot. But doing the latter was not something she relished especially since she really wanted to avoid touching the power she used to hurt and kill people. Channeling reminded her of the rage and fear she felt when she make the terrible choice to attack Alchemy.

"I really don't know... I mean, I can see it and feel it... but I'm not sure I can explain it yet."

Cadence took a few deep breaths and focused herself better, all the while keeping a tight grasp on Mariel.

"Maybe... ummm... I think she phases in a way... or the phases come over her because she can't really control them, so in some ways she's slipping in and out. But once connected, she's always connected, it's just where does she find herself at any given moment. If she can't control that, then she can't harness the energies. At least that's what I had to learn to do. As for what she's tapping into... I think she's linked to dark energy, but she's out of balance and maybe out of phase with it. I'm just guessing... I would need to do this very thing with her, you know, bring her here, to see it better... to see it all at once."

Mariel

“You know, you are quite bright Cadence, even if my sister never told you so. So is Dash, even if she doesn’t believe it herself. I think if you explained what you were trying to figure out, trying to do, she might understand at least some and be able to contribute ideas of her own.”

She pauses a moment.

“I think you can bring us back out of here now. I’ve got a look and Eric and Carver I think have some data.”

Grey’s voice speaks in the back of her mind.

“And I think I have an interesting observation about what is going on that might relate to your problems, if I can figure out how to express it.”

Cadence Marie Weathers
Forsaken

Maybe Mariel was right. Cadence had excelled in school. She had several honors class and was in the running to make the top 5 of her class. But that was a small 'pond' compared to a much bigger 'ocean' in which she now found herself. She shrugged. Compliments had been nearly non-existent for the last 9 months. She was told it would make her weak and undisciplined. Perfection was the standard and she had not met it yet.

"We spoken already some," she responded to the statements about Hadasha.

"Ready?"

Once Mariel acknowledged that, Cadence focused on bringing them both back out of the 'Middle'. She released her grip on her 'Aunt' once she was certain everything was safe.

Mariel:

She takes a deep breath.

“That is, indeed, slightly unnerving but I can now see at least some of what father was talking about now. And I’m pretty sure that Carmen interacts here as well to some degree. Seems like it’s in the genes, one way or the other.”

Eric clears his throat.

“I know it might not mean much to you, but if there is a chance it might, Cadence … you can always look at my recordings and data. Some of it isn’t raw numbers but visual. Don’t know if that helps you, but …”

He shrugs slightly.

She can feel Grey gently disengaging from her mind.

“Thank you for trusting me, Cadence. I know it isn’t easy sharing your head with someone else.”

Cadence Marie Weathers
Forsaken

Cadence nodded at the mention of the experience being unnerving.

"Yeah, but you get the step away from it," added softly, perhaps even with a touch of melancholy in her voice.

"I don't know Carmen, so I couldn't tell you for sure... but... Yeah. She's part of the family, right? So, it stands to reason..."

She turned to face Eric Sanderson and nodded after he offered her access to his data of the experiment. "Thank you, sir," she replied. "I do... I mean... I will... umm... Yes sir."

And then Grey slipped out of her remote consciousness. Cadence could have almost forgotten her presence there except for the fact that when she spoke or moved within her mind, it was like silk dragging across her skin. Weird but oddly comforting. She nodded to the telepath but had no further words to say.

Mariel

“True enough. Is there anything I can get you or help you with in trying to figure out the puzzle which is our Dash? I am going to compare notes with Carver and Eric and see is there is anything from a technical and scientific standpoint which crops up - you are welcome to participate, of course, but I at least somewhat have the impression that you might want to read that journal and talk to Dash herself?

Cadence Marie Weathers
Forsaken

Clutching the book again, as if it were her only possession, Cadence half shrugged and half nodded at the same time. She didn't want to be rude but she had about enough of hanging with the adults and doing the sciencey investigation stuff for now and really wanted to read, maybe watch TV, and most definitely tune out the noise in her head for a while. Hanging out with Dash and a couple other girls might be a good idea.

"I need some time to think."

(New setup in the girl dorm thread)