If letters had wings to fly up to the heavens

Emy · May 15, 2014

Ekaterina Dmitrievna Kalinina

A tired looking woman sat on a bench in the far corner of the powers classroom, gloved hands folded in her lap and quietly observing students as they trained. The white headscarf that Ekaterina usually donned whenever she came for her shifts at the Academy was now arranged around her neck. So it was clear to anybody who looked that the lighting of the place had significantly darkened the rings under her eyes.

It was Ekaterina's first time being in this room with class in session. Normally, she stopped by to rest a while when it was empty, after her usual infirmary shift, but today her schedule had been thrown off by co-workers at the hospital calling in family emergencies. Working later than normal, the doctor had been prepared to turn right around and leave once she saw that the place was being used. However, the instructor had been kind in inviting her to stay and Ekaterina had not wanted to seem rude by rejecting him.

In this place full of students, the doctor sitting off by herself on the fringes of all the activity could not help but feel a little envious. Having been the odd one out for much of her life, it was a little saddening to know that she had been a single if only away from a relatively normal existence. She was not ungrateful for the support that her church had shown her from her teenage years, however, she wondered what it would have been like if the Academy found her before the orphanage had.

It might have been nice, Ekaterina thought briefly in wistfulness. But, well, there was nothing to be done about that now. For the present...

She clenched her fingers lightly as she watched a rather young looking Asian girl stumble away from an explosion of light. The student didn't seem hurt, only momentarily dazed, which was a relief. Ekaterina had heard about a particular incident in the courtyard a few weeks back involving a similar feat of magic. If this was the girl responsible, then it seemed like she had gotten that part of her power more under control since that time.

To the students of today, then, Ekaterina thought in silently, motionless toast. Her eyes followed this Asian girl as she frolicked happily in a sea of white light butterflies. May their lives be long and in good company.

Cuftbert · May 17, 2014

In another lonely corner of the instruction room stood Paige, who had been staring down at the small table in front of her for some time now. The instructor had told her that because she couldn't remember the first time her powers were "awakened", she'd have to figure out how to use them herself. The only hints she had were what the officers said when they found her.

"Three guys in their late teens. Died from blood loss from severe lacerations in their throats and wrists. No murder weapon in sight, unless you killed 'em with a bunch of notebook paper."

When Paige told the instructor this, he simply gave her a stack of copying paper and let her experiment on her own. She picked an isolated corner for the sake of privacy, and because the other students's power displays frightened and embarrassed her somewhat. Several times Paige stared, slackjawed, at some guy or girl showing off their powers for their friends. Even the mistakes made them look cool, like that Asian girl with her weird looking butterflies. Compared to them, she felt insignificant.

Cain't impress a lot of guys with paper tricks. Cain't remember even doin' 'em, probably cause it was too dangerous... That'd be a laugh, havin' powers I can't remember usin'. Thought a bitter, jealous Paige as she watched a girl make a clump of clay form into the face of a famous celebrity.

"Ugh... Focus, focus. Gotta at least try..." Paige muttered, forcing her eyes away from the spectacle so she could glare at the pile of paper before her. The instructor told her moments before that her powers were probably mental-based, and that meant willing the paper to move. Concentrating wasn't easy when dozens of interesting things were going on close by, so the paper sat and stubbornly refused to budge no matter much hard she glared at it.

C'mon... Move. Move. Paige thought, but threatened would've been more accurate. Then she saw it, the brief moment when the topmost sheet slid just a little to the left. This small victory brought a smile to her face, despite the small display of power, Paige felt like cheering. This was all real, she did have powers!

Then it hit her: she used this power to murder three people.

Just like that, her smile vanished, her shoulders slumped, and whatever pride left in her was replaced with disgust. Without thinking, she shoved the sheets of paper off of the table, and they shattered in all directions. The suddenness of Paige's outburst caught the classroom's attention, and she felt all their eyes on her. The silence was maddening, and Paige's guilt over the blood on her hands on top of the goosebump-inducing stares were having a terrible effect on her.

"I...I'm... I'm sorry, I... I... I didn't..." Paige stammered as she avoided their eyes. She was tripping over her words as usual, and it was a strenuous task to avoid crying at this point.

Without warning, Paige strode past her table and made for the exit. She didn't care what kind of trouble she'd get in for this. She just had to get away from this room, these people, everything. With any luck, her dorm would be empty. If not... well, her room had a lock, even if it wasn't sound proof.

Emy · May 19, 2014

Ekaterina Dmitrievna Kalinina

There was a sudden storm of movement in a different corner and Ekaterina turned her head to see that the cause of it was a short, distressed looking girl with orange hair. She seemed to be saying something but Ekaterina was too far away to hear. Then abruptly, that orange haired girl broke away from the crowd of students, face clearly visible now as she hurried for the exit. She looked to be on the brink of tears.

Without thinking, Ekaterina rose to follow her but caught herself before she had taken a single step. The doctor bit down lightly on the inside of her cheek, thinking with a blank, frozen expression. If she had been a more expressive person, it might have been of worry instead. Should I? the Russian wondered indecisively, looking from the exit and girl and back, the distance between those two points decreasing so quickly.

She wasn't good with people, Ekaterina knew that. But neither did she like to stand around uselessly while others were in pain. Yet sometimes, she had found, her way of helping and caring seemed to make things worse. Better to try and fail? Or not try at all? Either way she would feel terrible about it.

Ekaterina moved forward, heels clicking on the ground quickly, before she lost her nerve. Better to try, then, she decided. The plague carrier adjusted her gloves and wrapped her scarf more tightly around her neck. She caught up with the girl at the door, instincts telling her to grab her by the shoulder and prevent her from leaving. Habit told her to refrain, however, so she did. There would be fewer chances of accident that way.

"Excuse me," the doctor said a little nervously, not that that showed in her body language at all. In that regard, she was simply a blank. "May I ask what is the matter?"

Cuftbert · May 22, 2014

Paige was right at the doorway when she heard a woman with a Russian sounding accent spoke up. By force-of-habit, she stopped in her tracks. The woman was asking a question Paige really didn't want to answer, for obvious reasons. After rubbing her eyes, she turned around and kept her gaze fixated squarely on the floor, only briefly glancing up every now and then to fully take in the woman's appearance. She was flashing as much skin as the most devout nun, and this struck the redhead as insane, what with the intense summer heat.

Well... she sounded Russian, maybe they always dress like that. Shouldn't ask though. Paige mused, and her thoughts couldn't help but draw a picture of this woman on a beach in her current attire, sweating her butt off. It was an incredibly stupid thing to imagine at the moment, so stupid that, for the briefest moment, she snicked...

...Said snickering happened right as she was staring at the Russian woman's face. At that, Paige immediately stared back down and started backing away, cheeks flushed. "Ahm... Ahm..." She was slipping into that embarrassing drawl again, "Ah- I just... nothin'. Nothin's the matter, ma'am."

Weak excuse, sure, but good cover stories were never her forte, now more than ever. Back pressed against the wooden door, Paige groped for the handle while muttering apologies and excuses for fleeing. As she opened the door, she quickly turned away from the woman and dashed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

While walking down the hallway, Paige felt her cheeks grow wetter by the second. "I... ain't... ever... gonna learn to use my powers..." She said, quietly and forcefully. Where she was guilty before, she now felt angry at herself for what she did and whatever creator cursed her with abilities she had no business having. A small, less vocal voice in her mind wondered if she would've been better off dying with her dad.

Paige squashed that voice the instant she heard it, but it's words lingered...

Emy · May 23, 2014

Ekaterina Dmitrievna Kalinina

Ekaterina blinked in confusion as the orange haired girl suddenly started to snicker, wondering what was so funny. Maybe she was being hysterical now? It didn't look like quite the same thing, however. And if not, well, she supposed that it was certainly an improvement over tears. But then it was gone in the next moment, as the girl provided one of the weakest excuses that Ekaterina ever had the displeasure of hearing.

The doctor started as the student took off in obvious distress, the door slamming loudly behind her. Should I, shouldn't I...? Ekaterina deliberated. She clearly wasn't wanted but then again, sometimes that things that people wanted weren't the things they needed. And she had already decided to try, right?

With that in mind, she hurried after the girl. Luckily, it seemed that the student had stopped running almost as soon as she had left the room. If it had come down to it, Ekaterina doubted that she could have kept up with a teenager. As she came closer, the doctor heard the girl say something that made the woman pause.

Now that seems familiar. In an inverted sort of way. How many times had Ekaterina thought that she had to learn how to use her powers? Not because she wanted to or because she was fond of them, but because it would keep everybody safer. And even so, the doctor still felt like she was still struggling to keep things under wraps. Oh, there were uses to her powers for sure. It was nice being able to help people but... She hadn't known about any of that in her childhood and still couldn't face what remained of her family.

Biting her lip a little, Ekaterina spoke. "Not all powers are so easy to control," she said. "And we can't all have healing abilities." Even if that would have been so very convenient. Even though she had no small degree of envy for Kida. Wouldn't be better to be able to prevent injury from happening at all, though? More of those what ifs that didn't get her anywhere.

She came to the student's side, tilting her head to the right. "Learning to use your powers, that's for other people's safety, too," the woman said haltingly in her uncertainty. "There's few powers in this world which cannot be used to help people in some way."

Ekaterina fixed her gloves in nervousness, despite the fact that she was sure they were secure. "My powers do not allow me to make physical contact with anybody. Yet there are still positive uses for them. What about yours...?"

Cuftbert · Jun 10, 2014

The soft-spoken Russian women's voice, calm as it was, made the emotionally charged redhead jump. Paige faced the woman — who she assumed was a teacher — and stood in silence, crossing her arms tightly over her chest so that she wouldn't be tempted to bite her nails. She didn't know how to respond to the teacher's reassurance that she wasn't the only one with a dangerous power, it wasn't the kind of statement you could say "thank you" to.

The teacher approached her, and Paige looked up at her, noting her uneasy expression. At least ah ain't the only shy one... She thought as she chewed on the edge of her bottom lip. The silence was palpable, and Paige wasn't sure if she should take off again and risk punishment or hear this woman out. So far the teacher didn't seem harsh, she was practically as nervous as Paige was with every passing second. Her mind was made up just as the teacher found her voice, this time stating the words Paige didn't want to hear at all, given the circumstances.

Paige sighed deeply and stared at the floor, "Ah... Ah already hurt people bad." She said, not daring to go into specifics. The idea that manipulating razor sharp paper would somehow help the world was a bitter, humorless joke to Paige, whose mind wandered to the countless number of students she'd seen perform amazing feats with their powers, they were the people who'd save the world and do miracles, not her.

Perhaps Paige let the frustration get to her, perhaps she just hated herself enough to stop caring, either way, she scoffed at the teacher's words. "Ah got the amazin' ability to make paper move real fast with my head," She said through gritted teeth, her mouth curled in a deep frown while her the tips of her eyebrows were close to touching. "You... You got them gloves to help, but I cain't just not stop movin' paper when ah'm mad, and I ain't gonna learn how to use somethin' so useless." Paige briefly felt a pang of guilt for her selfish words, but she wasn't going to apologize.

Emy · Jun 11, 2014

Ekaterina Dmitrievna Kalinina

"People do get hurt sometimes," Ekaterina said, all the while wondering if this was the right thing to do. There was a counselor in the school, of course. She had seen the Chinese man walking in the halls from time to time and he seemed friendly enough. Surely he was more equipped to this sort of situation? His personality certainly appeared to fit. But then again, that man was not here now, which was what this student needed. Now, there was just Ekaterina.

Which was not reassuring at all but she supposed that was fine. Maybe not fine. Acceptable, maybe. Sometimes when there wasn't anything or anybody else, just Ekaterina had to do.

"This academy would not exist if everybody naturally was in control of their powers," the Russian said. "Many people here have hurt others in the past. Some will hurt others in the future. Accidents do happen." It wasn't a pleasant thing to think but just as the Academy existed for a reason, so did the hospital. "But people who hurt others in the past, and people who will maybe hurt people in the future, ah. They don't need to keep hurting others forever. That's why we're here."

The doctor went on, hesitating a little as she thought over what exactly she wanted to say. "If anything happens at all here, it would not be your fault. It would... I think. Yes... It would be more of our failure than yours, I think?" Ah, back to basic vocabulary now. That was what she got for learning English so late, Ekaterina supposed. "It's our job as your teachers to be preventing that."

She frowned lightly. Since this was Ekaterina, the expression barely showed at all. "We're not perfect. We. All of us. We can only try." The tone of her voice might have sounded just the slightest bit lost, even though it would have been accurate to say that the emotions in her were more of reluctance than anything else. The doctor bit her lip until she could get back more of her English ability.

After a short while and an awkward silence, she remarked, "Paper manipulation is hardly a useless skill. One sheet may seem weak alone but many could be used to create something interesting."

Well, it's been a while since this has been replied to so I'm going to effectively complete it now. If you'd like to continue, however, I will take this edit out.

She bit her lip in thought. Philosophy now? That's not really my strong suit, the doctor thought in faint amusement. Perhaps it really was time to talk with Mr. Wong. "Come with me," she said to the student, gesturing in the direction of the counselor's office. "I think that there's somebody who can better explain."

Hopefully, anyways.

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If letters had wings to fly up to the heavens

Emy

Well-Known Member

Cuftbert

Member

Emy

Well-Known Member

Cuftbert

Member

Emy

Well-Known Member

Cuftbert

Member

Emy

Well-Known Member