Not talking about the game.... [Action + Video]

[doomedtheworld]

Who: Vanessa and Open
What: Vanessa has decided that she's had enough recovery time and that it's time to start getting a grip on her powers.
When: August 21st. Afternoon.
Where: An abandoned warehouse down in the Dead District.

Three weeks of sitting still was more than enough for her. Her arm had healed up enough and she figured it was about time to get out and start figuring out how these abilities worked for herself. Pewter was easy enough, swallow it and get stronger, but steel was a little more complicated and she didn't intend to only use it to bounce uselessly around the street next time something came up. But she also couldn't just go outside and start throwing metal around with her mind either. She needed a place to practice out of view.

Which was what brought her down to the more industrialized area of the Dead District, and after a couple of hours of searching she'd found just the place. It was an old, empty warehouse, abandoned a few years earlier and left to rot like so many other places in the area. It had taken some doing to find a way inside but she'd managed. It was an older building with brick walls and high, wooden ceilings held up by heavy beams. There was a large wide open shipping floor and the rest of the building was taken up by tall shelves made of metal struts that the previous owners had apparently decided weren't worth disassembling and taking with them. It was dusty, dimly lit and several degrees warmer than outside... but it would do.

After making sure the place was clear, she headed out to the middle of the shipping floor with steel burning. Okay, so what did she know? It gave her the power to "push" against metals, make lighter objects move and heavier objects moved her. Looking out, she could see that strange blue line reaching out from her chest to connect to whatever metal object she was focused on at the time. She scanned around the room, watching the line switch to different targets as she looked at them.

Okay, so only one thing at a time for now. She thought to herself and dug in her pocket for some of the change she'd brought along. She grabbed one coin and held it up, watching the line switch to it and Pushed. As she figured the coin spun away in the dim warehouse, clanging to the ground somewhere out of sight.

She practiced with them for awhile, Pushing coins straight out of her hand, tossing them in the air and Pushing them away in midair and trying to hit whatever she picked as a target with varying accuracy. This power was tricky..... She was engrossed in thought so much that she didn't even notice when one coin went wild and smacked against the wall while she was still Pushing it.

Instantly it felt as if somebody had shoved her hard in the chest and she staggered backwards with a gasp, just managing to not topple over before she stopped Pushing and the coin clattered to the floor.

Right... lighter objects move unless they don't have anywhere to move to. Then I'm pushing on the weight of the wall. So if that happens if I'm pushing against a wall....

She pulled another coin from her pocket and dropped it on the floor in front of her between her feet and stared down at it thoughtfully. After a moment she took a deep breath and Pushed down.

Instantly she shot up into the air with a shriek, stopping the Push before she made it more than a few feet and dropped back to the ground. She stood still for a moment before she grinned a little bit despite herself and let out a small, nervous laugh.

"Holy shit." She breathed and then turned her attention up to the top of the shelves and the wooden beams crossing the ceiling above her.



[A few hours after her first tests, Vanessa pops up on video on the network. She's a little sweaty and out of breath but she does actually have an excited grin on her face.

She's also perched up on one of those big wooden beams. The warehouse ceiling is easily visible just above her head and there's a fluorescent light hanging behind her.]

Okay, if anybody out there has any powers that they want to practice with that you can't use in public I think I found a good place. It's pretty dusty and hot in here but it's quiet and nobody comes down here anymore. I've been here for a few hours and haven't seen anybody.

[She gives the address of the place in case anybody wants to stop by and the video cuts out just before she jumps from the beam.]

Comments

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

How high are the ceilings?

[Text]

[doomedtheworld]

[It's a couple of minutes before she even realizes she has a message to answer.]

I'm not sure. Maybe twenty feet or more?

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

No good. I need at least 30 feet.

[Text]

[doomedtheworld]

What do you need thirty feet for?

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

Diabound.

[Text]

[doomedtheworld]

What?

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

My spirit beast.

[ text / iphone ]

[allinvein]

So you *are* practicing. Too bad I'm stuck running all across the city for work to come and watch.

[A few seconds pass between that text and the next:]

Wait, how did you get up there?

[Text]

[doomedtheworld]

[Ah, right, between finding the place and messing around with steel, she'd managed to forget about that. Although she's still not sure what to make of it, but she did have to admit. Steel had turned out pretty cool.]

Maybe next time then.

[And then to the next message.]

It's kind of hard to explain over text, but I sort of jumped.

[allinvein]

Weren't you pushing spoons around the last time we talked?

[How the hell did that evolve into jumping? But hey, more power to her! Maybe?]

[doomedtheworld]

I settled on coins after awhile.

If I push against something heavier than me I'm the one that moves. The same thing happens if whatever I'm pushing on is against a wall or the floor so if I push down then I go up.

[Yeah, she's actually pretty excited over this because holy shit she can fly?! Sort of?]

[allinvein]

[His mental image involving coins and pushing is a bit bizarre, so it's probably a good thing that there's no video to go with this; John's currently making a funny face at his phone.]

So let me get this straight: you pushed a coin against the floor, and it made you fly up into the air? How much control do you have?

[--Because he is totally imagining her zipping all over the place like a rag doll. Oops.]

[doomedtheworld]

[Hey, she's here because she's trying to avoid doing the ragdoll thing... again.]

That's pretty much it. I don't have a lot of control about where I actually go in the air so I have to make sure I'm aiming right.

Like I said it's hard to explain in a text message.

video;

[metalbent]

What kind of powers?

[ CURIOUS. Not that she has any plans to go there, or any reason to - or she'd be asking for more specific directions. ]

Video

[doomedtheworld]

[Oops. Video. She stops for a second to answer this one. She's not quite good enough to try talking to someone while jumping around just yet.]

Whatever people have. I figure there must be some other people out there who got powers they need to work on but can't really use in public.

Video

[metalbent]

Yeah, but that means you have some, right? What'd ya get?

Video

[doomedtheworld]

A couple of them, yeah.

The one I'm working on right now lets me move metal around. Kind of. I can sort of push it with my mind and move it away from myself.

Video

[metalbent]

Wait, seriously?

[ FASCINATING. Her echoes consist of a metal bracelet, Katara, and the idea that bending is a thing with four elements.

This sure does sound like bending, so Sophie's intrigued. Though there's some differences in that statement... ]

So you don't have to, say, do a sort of martial arts thing to get it to work?

Video

[doomedtheworld]

Seriously.

I don't have to do any moves to use it, but I do have to swallow some metal for it to work. Then I can see this blue line going from me to whatever metal thing I'm looking at and I just push against it.

[video]

[lackinginfaith]

To make sure you can do it properly?

[video]

[doomedtheworld]

[More video. This time she's going to stop on one of those top shelves and sit down before answering.]

That's the idea, yeah.

[video]

[lackinginfaith]

What's your power?

[video]

[doomedtheworld]

[She shrugs, sitting back against one of the metal posts holding the shelves in place. It looks totally safe up there, really.]

So far it looks like I can swallow certain kinds of metal to get powers from them. The one I'm working on right now takes steel and it lets me push against metal like a magnet or something.

At first I thought it was only good for pushing around small things, but it turns out that if I push something heavier than me it moves me around instead. Or if what I'm pushing on is against a wall.

[She glances over the side of the shelf, grinning a little despite herself.]

Or the floor.

[video]

[lackinginfaith]

It sounds useful, aside from the metal-eating inconvenience. Unfortunately, I haven't got anything for myself yet.

[video]

[doomedtheworld]

It's not that bad. Steel's actually pretty easy to find.

What about you? Did you figure out what that pearl thing is?