DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Alternate Reality PHX: Phoenix Reform Academy Sicut Alius Dies - Peri

Peri

“How did I not notice? How?” she wasn’t really talking to Lady Grey. She wasn’t really listening either, just talking to herself as she tried to work things out.

“If I’d known, I... I could have helped him. Could have stopped him or talked him out of it. It’s my fault he killed those people, because I didn’t notice and didn’t stop him.”

She started to pick at the skin around her nails, brow furrowed with intense concentration.

“Must be something to do with my mother. She died right around the time I was born. She’s the only thing he ever cared about.

Continuing to pick at the skin next to her nails - a tiny bead of blood welling up.

“It all comes down to her. Whoever she was. That’s what broke him. He always said. I’m not half the person she was. Not half. Not a quarter.”

She crossed her arms on the table and buried her head in her arms. Finally something Lady Grey said got through the haze.

“No. No, it’s not right. The machine must be broken. I’m not extraordinary. I’m not even ordinary. I’m the wadded up chewing gum stuck to the bottom of ordinary’s shoe. I’m nothing.”

Grey:

“I would have to guess, without context that you are potentially in the same strata that Nyx or Alchemy, Cyclone, and Primus occupy. Of course the practicality Is up in the air depending on what you do. If I had to guess, it lies in either in the realm of telepathy or empathy, or it is a meta ability. An ability that effects other abilities. Powers often, if not always, relate to those of the parents. Especially if there are two powered parents.”

She pauses. Your conjectures are right, and it’s a twisted and complicated story. Perhaps one you are not ready yet to hear all of at the moment. But it will not be hidden from you, because you deserve to know.”

Peri

“I found his hit list. Not early enough to stop anything. Found it tonight.”

Her voice was still flat, almost completely devoid of emotion.

“If I’d looked in that specific spot before now, maybe... But when I saw it, I knew there was something. Was going to run away. At least for long enough to clear my head. So I guess I wouldn’t have tried to stop him. I’d have run.”

The names were seared into her mind.

“Shatterpoint, Mirror, Timbre, Ice, Gigawatt. He’d already got to the first three. The other two... can you tell them? Let them know that they were on his list, but he’s locked away? Just... if he gets out, I don’t want them to be caught by surprise when he comes after them.”

Her voice suddenly grew quieter.

“They probably already know.”

“Yes. They do.”

She says quietLy.

“They have been informed.”

“What we are talking about now, however, is you. Your future. You do have one. You are not, naturally, going to prison as such. You are not a criminal. You are, however, both without a parent and not of an age of majority. You also happen to be potentially very dangerous. That combination is going to lead to you being, for now, a ward of the state. We do, however, have a school. It’s ... special for the children in this sort of ... difficult situation.”

Peri

“Sure,” she said almost inaudibly.

It had to be better than the school she’d gone to before.

“Please, just... take care of him. Get him sober.”

“They will ... try. He still has people who care for him from his old life, despite everything.”

She might’ve notice her voice is studiously neutral here.

“Meanwhile, I think you need perhaps some dinner and then a good night’s sleep. It has most assuredly been much too long of a day.”

Peri

She nodded silently, lost in thought.

She can, when she wishes, wake up and possibly ,move to the common room.