The Price of Life - IC

[Xiga]

After a while of channeling her will to and searching herself to feel if something was different she actually started to feel a slight tingle in the center of her belly. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath then visualized her power taking form in-front of her. Vanaiel felt the tingle in her belly grow stronger streaming further out into her feet and she started to feel ill. Immediately she opened her eyes, and she saw the gravel move over the ground towards her, coming closer and closer. Vanaiel's eyes widened and she gasped. This wasn't real. This couldn't be real. She started to shiver, the tingle in her belly now almost aching, and she stood up, backing away from the gravel that moved towards her. Then all of of a sudden the gravel rose from the ground around her.
"Stop it..! " Vanaiel whimpered at first. For being a prank this was verry well executed and she had no idea why herbelly was aching. It slowly dawned upon her that this might not be a prank after all, but her brain quickly pushed the thought aside. "Pleas stop, whoevers in charge... It's not fun anymore. Haha... Nice effects, but please..."
The gravel came closer and the feeling became more and more intense and the shivering became stronger. She reached for the cellphone that she had in her pocket, the gravel on her left hand side lowering in he same way that she moved her hand and that startled her even more.

"STOP IT! IT'S NOT FUN ANYMORE..!!" And with that the gravel shot away from her towards the opposite way, like an explosion emitting from her, her body being the center. Then she fell to the ground.
She was shivering really bad, and tears were tingling down her cheeks as she crawled up in fetal position and slowly came to realization... If her power.. The gravel.. Was something that she had really done... What would the rest mean? Would she have to kill someone..? She couldnt kill anyone.
What if this was just haluciogen drugs causing her to feel the horrible feelings he did, stuck in an alleyway that might or might not exist..? THe man in the tv..

So many thoughts spun around in her head, and trying to sort them out while shivering the way she did, sparkles nearing the corners of her eyes was not easy. So she closed her eyes once more and tried to relax... She tried to think about one thing at the time. Okay.. My name is Vanaiel Snow... I'm a violinist... 24 years old... Yes..

She touched her face and her arms. She was verry much alive. She then pinched her arm. It hurt, so it wasnt a dream...

[Xartarin]

Henry let out a deep, deep sigh when he found that neither the kid nor Aviva were still there, leaving the group down to just him and Marcus. It was a very long exhale of air, a soft groan that lasted somewhere between ten and fifteen. If he hadn't been distracted by how abysmal the situation was looking compared to his previous plans, he might have stopped for a moment to appreciate the impressive display of tidal volume. Marcus finished talking, lamenting the disappearance of Jason. "On the other hand, if we can get everyone to stick together, then maybe we can find a way out of this insanity - or at least give a big 'F you' to the Controller by not doing anything."

To double check, Henry wheeled himself over to the lobby. Aviva had already left the building, the only thing remaining there was the now-familiar headless corpse. Henry returned to the hallway, now in an even worse mood than before. "I think that ship might've sailed, and if we want to get Jason and the other woman back, we'll have to hunt them down. Frankly if they weren't interested in staying together before, I doubt we'll be able to convince them." Henry scratched the back of his head and breathed in sharply through his teeth. It was hard to let go of how poorly things had ended up. "I really don't think it'd be worth it to track them at this point, the whole idea of getting a large group together's pretty much down the shitter at this point."

"I guess the 'Controller''s getting what he wanted, everyone's split up and probably fighting at this point. I was hoping we'd be able to use most of the month to do a little snooping, to be honest. If he's got men working the stores we could shake them down for info, maybe find a way to break enough of the city to at least inconvenience him. I'm not buying that he's some god or something, after all. But for now it's probably best to stay alive, at least until some of the others have calmed down." Henry rubbed his eyes, and then finished his speech to ask Marcus a question. "Speaking of which, are you planning on bailing too? Now'd be the time."

[Neobullseye]

Upon checking the room more thoroughly, Marcus noticed that not only Jason had left. In fact, the room was completely empty, save for Henry and himself - and the dead body of the nameless girl. Could it really be that everyone else snapped this easily? No... I refuse to believe that. They're probably just scared or something. Yeah, that makes more sense than everyone suddenly becoming psychopaths. He quietly shook his head, being just as disappointed as Henry - or at least as much as his physical reaction implied. He, too, had hoped that at least a few others were able to stay calm long enough for them to make a larger group, if for no other goal to protect themselves from the - hopefully few - others that couldn't handle the stress of the situation. But as things looked now, that wasn't going to happen.

Henry's voice suddenly yanked Marcus out of his self-calming thought process as the former asked him a question. "Speaking of which, are you planning on bailing too? Now'd be the time." Marcus violently shook his head. "No. I'm not going to bail. In fact, I refuse to play this game, period," he said, his voice slightly raised due to anger aimed at the monster that named itself - he refused to see it as a human - the Controller. As if to mark his words, Marcus started to search through his pockets, then took the still-closed envelope and phone out of them. He was silent for a second, then sighed as handed both to Henry. He continued in a calmer voice, "Now I realize that others might still want to attack us. As such, I want you to tell me what my power is, and only what my power is. Afterwards, I want you to rip up the letter and photo and delete any and all messages that might be on the phone. That way I will never know who my 'target' is, and per extension I should not be able to fall to the temptation of doing something horrible."

[Xartarin]

Henry nodded as he took the letter and the phone. "You know, I appreciate the rebellious sentiment, but to be honest I never saw the point of these 'targets' in the first place," Henry said, and then took Marcus' phone. He flipped it open to delete whatever messages he had received on there. The inbox was empty. That was easy. "See, there can only be one survivor in the end, right? And as far as I can tell there aren't any consequences for killing someone who's not your target. So why bother? You can just kill people in whatever order you want, as far as I can tell." With that, Henry moved onto the letter. He paused first, wondering about accidentally revealing the identity of Marcus' target. He hadn't opened his own letter either, so he didn't know if the letter had a photo printed on it that could be seen through the other side. Maybe Henry would accidentally give it away in conversation?

After deciding that he personally didn't care if Marcus knew who his target was or not, he opened the letter. There was visible surprise on Henry's face as he read, but it could be from either the target or the power. He started reading aloud the section on Marcus' power.

"You can control electricity... In the beginning.... you'll be able to increase and decrease the power of preexisting sources of electricity, blah blah note that this is very much a contact-based power, you get the idea."

Henry reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his own envelope. It was unopened as well. He lined up the two envelopes and tore them both in half, and then continued splitting them until the pieces were illegibly small, and he left them on the floor. "I guess right now we should find a place to eat. Or at least get out of this bloody hotel. There are probably plenty of restaurants in the city, so we might be able to find one without running into the others. It might be worth it to wait a day or so before calling the others and seeing if they've cooled off. So, unless you've got a better plan..." Henry turned around and started wheeling out through the lobby to leave the building, figuring that he probably wouldn't be able to leave through any other exit. He opened the front door and looked around outside cautiously, then looked at the ground in front of the hotel door. Luckily, it looked like Marcus wouldn't need to help Henry down any stairs.