DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Alternate Reality PHX: Phoenix Reform Academy Mariel’s office

The room is largely done in dark blues and blacks, various musical instruments on the walls and usually the sound of a violin playing softly in the background. The desk is fine grained oak, looks well made. A couple of chairs and a sofa are in the room, as well as a small book case and an old fashioned record player.

Later that day there was a knock at her door.

Ben was outside and waited until she invited him inside to meet with her.

"I am sorry if I am interrupting. I wanted to go over a couple of things with you if I could."

Mariel

“Come in, come in.”

She is sitting at the desk rubbing her eyes' still looking rather tired. It did look like she had found the time to wash her face and change clothes however.

“I’ve got hot tea, cokes, juice, cold water ...”

She motions to a mini fridge which has a pot on top of it.

“Want something, take it.”


“Then tell me what I can help you with.”

Ben

He paused just inside the door, looking at her for a moment before going to the refreshment area and poured a hot tea, making it strong and then coming over to place it on the desk in front of her.

"If you are not going to be going right to sleep, then you need that." he said, seeing the fatigue in her eyes.

Ben took a set in front of her desk, crossing his legs and took out two slips of paper.

"I will keep it brief. I am sure that you have not had the time yet to check on my employees from home with the lawyers about their severance. If possible, I would like a few personal items from home. I wrote out a short list here. Mostly a few pictures from my room of family, a copy of the Odyssey and the Illead that my mother gave me when I was young and some clothing that will not be easy to replace, especially my suits and tux. Since I am not sure what is going to happen to the contents of the house that is." he said, placing one of the slips of paper on the desk.

"There are also some text books that I was using. If we could get those then that would negate having to replace them for studying."

She nods slightly.

“I’ll coordinate with the officials. Some personal effects would be fine. I am sure I can swing that.”

She pauses for a bit.

“Ben, I do want you to understand something. I understand the efforts you are making. I understand why you are trying them. I think you also should understand that if you try to look into case law on the subject, a good bit of what you will look at will be me. Sometimes you rail against the system. But I can with fair certainty assure you that most of the angles you will think of have already been tried.”

She tilts her head to one side and looks at him a while longer.

Ben

He nodded quietly as she spoke, folding his hands on his lap.

"I understand and appreciate your advise and in some of the cases here I can understand the need for this, for those that have already used their gifts for destructive purposes but can be given a chance to change. I can even understand their caution in regards to myself but since my only crime is my birth then by principal I have to speak up. It is discrimination, just the same as if it were my skin color or gender choice. They do not hold the children born to their heros to the same standard. Those children are as likely to use their abilities for ill."

He shrugged.

"But I will endeavour to succeed here for my time period until my 18th birthday. By next fall I plan to be in Boston attending college and putting all of this behind me. I have my own future to forge."

Mariel

“They are registered. They are trained. If those children of heroes do not have those things happen and are going as an unregistered talent ... then in theory they could end up here. They have before, although it does not happen often. It isn’t cut and dry. Regardless understand one thing: if you leave here, are eighteen and an unregistered class one talent you would be right back in confinement, only this time it would be an adult facility. That is not something they have a sense of humor about. Do you understand that? Potentially deadly talents cannot be unregistered. Rail against it, call it unfair, whatever you wish, but it is what it is.”

Ben

"Oh, I do not have a problem with registering my abilities since they can be dangerous. The only problem I have is them confining me when I have not broken a significant law. But like you said, it is what it is. I know that I have had a comfortable life and I suspect some of the other students have not. I hope that this program is a benefit for them."

He got to his feet.

"No hard feelings from before. You should try to get some rest when you can."

Mariel

She studies him a while longer.

“Might eventually even happen.”

She snorts a little.

“But first. I have paperwork.”

Ben

"Good evening then Mariel." he said, excusing himself and shutting the door behind him.

Anne

Seeing Ben leave Mariel's office, she knows she is no longer first, and she doesn't want to be last. So she moves and knocks on the door when Ben has walked far enough that he isn't going to return for something.

She straightens up again, pulls her hair back.

“Come in. You want something, there’s a fridge on the side.”

She can see that she’s cleaned her face and thrown on a different dress, but she’s pretty sure she still hasn’t showered or slept.

Anne

She stepped in and shut the door. "I have a couple of quick questions if you have time. Though you look like sleep would be better, and my questions can wait. Shall I come back later?" She looks as if she wants to say something more, but holds it back.

Mariel

“Sit, Anne. I’m not going to fall asleep anytime soon anyway. If you could refill my teacup from that pot before sitting though, it would be very appreciated.”

Anne

She walks to the desk and gets the cup to take it over to the fridge and refill it. Walking back an odd look crosses her face. "This isn't my question, but my powers involve draining people generally. That is all that my mother was interested in. However, I suspect that it is more of a teeter totter. I might be able to offer you some of the fitful rest I got earlier, if that is something you want to try. Though now that I think on it, it might be best to experiment under controlled conditions. I don't want to hurt you." She didn't comment about it possibly hurting or even killing herself, it didn't even occur to her.

She sets down the cup her hands shaking a bit at the offer she just made. She had never even thought of it before this moment.

Continuing on before Mariel has a chance to comment anything she says "I came in to ask about monetary funds. My family has had money for a very long time. Even though my mother is..." her voice trailed off.

"I have some money in my own accounts and I wondered if that were available to offset my expenses here. I don't want anyone to have to take care of me, if I have the ability to take care of myself. If that makes any sense."

She remained standing, not by intention more by afterthought.

Mariel:

“Sit, Anne. Please.”

“We are looking into the funds Nyx has hidden away, it is made somewhat harder by the fact that she is unaccounted for.”

She says evenly.

“Still - we have several funds we can draw on and if possible may take advantage of your offer.”

Anne

She takes a seat and says "my mother wasn't very forthcoming with many things. other than discipline when I didn't behave the way she wanted right at that moment."

She looked down at the front of the desk and her hands before continuing. "In all honesty I am not sure if I want my mother to have survived, or if I wish she didn't. It is a mixed up situation."

She paused then she looked up "the offer does stand both for the money, and if you would like to see if I can cause whatever it is I draw to flow both ways. Nyx always said life, but I suspect it is much more complicated than that."

Mariel

“Yeah, you are right about that. If there was ever one thing that she was consistent about it was her temper.”

It almost sounded like someone who knew her to some degree, but she breezed past before the situation could be further addressed.

“I’ve been thinking about it, and I think you may be right about your abilities. But although I’m a Bit of a rebel, I’m not sure I want to experiment with that without some controls in place.”

Anne

"That seems wise." She nodded in agreement. "It almost sounded like you knew her first hand?" She inquired.

She pauses a long while.

‘So a little story. Once upon a time, before you were born, there were still, of course, supervillains. Some of them you still know. Enkidu. Phobos. Another was an individual known as Singularity. A particularly unpleasant individual, destructive and wanting to bring things crashing down because he knew better. Now Singularity had three offspring, three girls. One from his first wife. That wife ... died. The others came from a second wife. The one daughter was never all that close to the other two.”

She pauses, watching Anne carefully while speaking.

Anne

She was listening intently leaning forward in her chair a bit. Nyx had never told her anything about what came before. It was just mother and daughter.

“Now the younger two were, when Singularity decided to make his move, too young to come along. They stayed home. The older one celebrated her sixteenth birthday the day before, and came along. She was quite sure she was ready. And so, she found herself in the middle of a city, standing on top of a building beside her father. Watching as he started to collapse the building. Collapse a hospital. To get to one man.”

That girl made a decision. That decision led to the death of that father, and it also ended with her in the care of one Martin Kemp, who got it into his head that he thought she was salvageable. She teaches at this school right now, in fact.”

She gives Anne a long look into her eyes, and waits.

Anne

She settled back a bit. "I can't say that I haven't thought about it. But I can't know what went through your mind then or even now. I acted because I just couldn't take it anymore. That I understand. I still don't know how to live with that choice."

She looked at Mariel. "What made you make that choice? What was the straw? So to speak?"

She wanted to know who the other two were too, she suspected Alchemy and Nyx, but that was just an intuitive guess.

Mariel:

“Couldn’t tell you. It wasn’t really a logical chain. In the moment sometimes a series of hooks just snag, one thread gets pulled and the sweater unravels. A pebble starts an avalanche. In the moment you make a decision. Grey would call it a shatter point.”

A long pause.

“Needless to say, some people shattered in different ways.”

Anne


"I can see that," she admits. "Were your sisters who I think they were? My mother and Alchemy?"

Mariel:

“Half sisters. Never was very close. Never wanted to be. Frankly, they scared me. I looked for every excuse I could to be elsewhere. When the ones who picked me up went to find them at home, they were no longer there. Don’t know what happened in the interim. But I sympathize, Anne.”

Anne

She looked carefully at Mariel. She said nothing. She didn't want to upset the good thing she had going and it was nice to have someone to talk to. But Anne wasn't sure she wanted sympathy either. There was some old joke about where to find it in the dictionary, and she didn't want to find any of the three things.

"I am not sure what I want, but I do appreciate having someone to talk to. I was alone growing up as you can well imagine."

Mariel:

“Yes. I imagine they didn’t really let the two of you talk to eachother much if at all. Didn’t want to lose control.”

Anne

"Each other? Who do you mean?" Her brows furrowed as she tried to think of who she might mean.

Mariel

“You are Nyx’s daughter. Alchemy also has a daughter.”

She says carefully.

Anne

An involuntary shudder passed down her spine. "My mother was crazy, but at least she was a mother in some form. I don't know what Alchemy was like really. I met her a few times. I knew that she and Nyx were something to each other. But I didn't realize that she had a daughter too."

She shook her head "I am betting she was at the event we both were and she is here now." She closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. Peri doesn't know that she has powers, that wouldn't fit Alchemy. Dash is broken in some way. That seemed more like that experiment guy.

"She is wearing extra special jewelry isn't she?" She smiled. Yes that made sense. But why did she end up with the thing. "Is the ankle thing a monitor or a damper? Or both?"

“Alchemy ... is as near to a sociopath as I can imagine. Cold, manipulative, narcissistic, completely amoral. Or that is the girl that I saw back then and I have no reason to believe she has changed.”

Anne

"I don't know. But since she and Nyx were working together I am pretty sure that you are pretty right."

"Does she know who I am?" She wondered if that would be a good or bad thing?

Mariel:

“I am not quite sure. I am trying to tread carefully here as I don’t know how she might react. I wasn’t sure how you would react. I want to bring it up slowly.”

Anne

She smiled "I just don't get your concern. To potentially homicidal super beings in an unfamiliar situation with unfamiliar people. What could go wrong?" She laughed lightly, but it was obviously forced.

"I have a memory of meeting a girl, once, long ago, but at that time I didn't know auntie psychopath very well. Not saying I do now, but having been around crazy mom Nyx, I suspect she was even more dangerous. Her powers were very very odd, and that would make almost anyone act differently given what they could do."

"I am ok with her knowing or not knowing as the case may be. I have to make a new life, and this place is where I am for now. That means I have to learn to live with the people that are here. The other option is a deep dark hole, and that isn't my first choice. I guess I am saying take your time, feel it out and she can learn of me when she is ready. For now I will remain Anne, and not mention mom in any case at all. I really don't want most people to know that my mother was Nyx, that will kind of bias their view points. Don't ya think?"

Anne - we have parentage ranging from Enkidu to Innana, Darkstar, Blink ... I don’t think your parents define you here. You are who you are.

Anne

She smiled a forlorn kind of a thing. Tilting her head to the side she said "that may be true, but in its own way it is naive. Perception is part of one's view point, which steams from what one has learned. So to associate Nyx with me, is to color one's view point of who I might be. Yes I can overcome that point of view in time with effort. But it will alter things just because it is now present in their minds. I know it will come out at some point, but I suspect like the other daughter, they are keeping it close to the vest to avoid exactly that kind of a influence. Don't you think?"

Mariel:

“Perhaps. Not an option I had at any rate. I even had a codename. ‘Trouble’. I was perhaps a bit willful.”

Anne

"You probably know my given name. But I haven't shared it here for multiple reasons. One I am not the person that my mother wanted me to be. This may not be my first choice in the direction my life was going to go, but this is a new start. Another reason is that my mother might not have been killed and she will certainly come looking for vengeance. Should I be that target, I doubt a name change would protect me, but it does offer protection here from preconceptions of who or what I am."

"I'll admit I am operating out my own naive little bubble, but much of what I know has been beaten into me with a very large club. Some comes from family knowledge having wealth means everyone wants to stick their hands in your pockets. I understand that this place is different and you don't operate that way, which is why I made my offer. I wish to be different than my mother in that manner. She took what she wanted without regard for anything else."

Mariel:

“I almost went by Carmen. But I decided my name was one of the few things father gave me that I wanted to keep. And Anne, I want to assure you wether it comforts you or not, she will get you over my cold dead body. I can assure you I can still be troublesome.”

Her face was dead serious.

“As for your given name, actually I do not. Grey could have had it off you, but she isn’t going to do that.”

She pauses again a moment longer.

“Anne, if you wish to pay your way and can do so I will not stop you, but as of right now, things are paid for.”

Anne

She considered for a long time and said "as long as it is in the strictest of confidence, my given name is Tenebra. Yes just one name, like a bad rock star."

Mariel:

"Father didn't generally go for the theatrical when naming his offspring, even if he did it himself. I was Mariel. Then there were the other two. They chose their names themselves. Personally thought it was a load of pretentious rot even then, but hey, what did sixteen year old me know?"

Anne

"I believe my mother felt that a name should invoke the feelings in your opponents that she desired. I suppose that is partly why I chose Anne. To spit in her eye even if it wasn't literal.

"In my own viewpoint a name is important, but I am not out to intimidate someone into fear. I don't know what I want my name to say of me, but for now, I need the other name in my past. I don't know what to do with it, and I certainly don't want to be influenced by it. Naive as that sounds, since it obviously is affecting my choices." She shrugged.

"I should let you get to whatever it is you need to do, so that you can rest. Let me know if you get supervision or protections in place and want to see what happens if or even if I can offer energy back to you. I am curious too."

She didn't stand though, it wasn't clear she was ready to go as her words had said.

Mariel


She puts down the cup of tea after another sip, then looks across and meets her eyes.

“Anne, I am here as long as you need it, if you have something to say get it off your mind. I’m not sure I’m sleeping easily tonight even after I go to bed. Please, talk.”

Anne

She looked at her for a moment. "I am really not sure what to say. So many conflicting thoughts are warring in my brain. I never had a mother like some did and I can't say I missed it, because I didn't know it. You understand the painful feelings just rolling inside without anyone to share it with, ta shoulder to cry on?"

"I just want to know things. Like did Nyx survive? Why do I want to know? I can't answer that, I really don't know. Maybe because for whatever it is, she was my mother. Am I glad she is gone? Oh yeah. Pain is not a bed fellow I want and I do know it.

"I guess my biggest concern at the moment is what will I do when I am confronted. I intend to be good, but I know what my mother was like. She lashed out for no reason I could see from time to time. If I am provoked, what will I do? I just don't have the confidence to know that it will all be ok. Even though you say it will be, and I didn't kill when I could have. I still just don't know. That scares me. I don't want to tell that to anyone else, you understand. You are listening, but it still fills me with fear like my mother were standing over me yelling at me to do something.

"Does that make any sense?"

Mariel

“My mother died in birthing me, so I never knew her. Who knows, perhaps her presence might have led to father being different? My second ‘mother’ - now she never liked me. She was vying for favor for her offspring. I was never close. Of course, given time she died as well. So I never really ‘had’ a mother in any real sense, so perhaps I am a bit vague on that feeling. All I had was father, and father was a different story. He tried to mold me, and almost succeeded save for the fact that I got myself a conscience from some damn place or another.”

She pauses again.

“Anne, if I were to tell you I can guarantee everything will be alright, I would be a liar. I’m not going to lie to you. What I can say to you is that it is my intention, our intention, to try to give you the tools you need to be able to make decisions you are comfortable with when the time comes. At times, I might make you really mad at me. But my goal is the same. Every day is a new fight. Try to take one more step forward than you take back and see what happens.”

Anne

"Your father was probably like my mother, other than Nyx was cray cray in the most obvious way.

"As far as what the future will do, or bring? I agree one step at a time. I have trepidation, but who wouldn't?

"I think I will go stick my head in the sand for a bit. Possibly learn about the others that are here in my new environment. They will be as much of this social experiment. I have hopes as well.

"Good talk," she said finally. Her eyes shone with a little more comfort then they had earlier.

Mariel:

“Yes, it was. I am glad we had it. If you need anything, my door is, as it were, open.”

Anne

She straightens "one step forward," she says over her shoulder with a small light tone, to go with her half smile. She moves towards the door and unless stopped, she exits.

[OOC: Fade?]

[fade. Welcome to join girls dorm if wished. Some point over the next couple I’m likely advancing a day and starting some new things unless someone has something the particularly want to set up first. Likely when I’m off on tues or wed.