It was difficult to say how much time would have passed, were it not frozen, as I sat in my seat and calculated the odds before me. I had four clubs, and was waiting for the last one to fall on the river so I could win the pot with a flush. There are 13 clubs in a 52-card deck - two of them were in my hand, two were on the board, and nine were god knows where. There were 46 cards that could come on the river, and nine of them would give me a win. The odds were 37 to 9 or about 4 to 1. Not bad. I nervously tucked my curls behind my ear and adjusted the black blazer I was wearing over a low cut velvet blouse. Women in poker had to take any advantage available, and as a rather diminutive, inexperienced, and young looking player, it meant trying to blend in with the confident, well-dressed and expensive looking Manhattan poker club’s attendees.

I looked around the table at the four other players. One woman, and three men. The woman was gorgeous, with glossy black hair that fell in waves down her back and a tiny red cocktail dress. Her elegantly done face was frozen in a slight frown. Of the three men, two had folded. One, tuxedo clad, was side-eyeing the woman’s breasts, which were practically spilling from the top of her tight dress, and the other, an older gentleman, was picking his nose and had been removing his finger when time had stopped. The man who was still playing wore a mask - his face held this self-satisfied smirk for the past three hours that we’d played, and it must have been his default poker face. Picture Justin Bieber’s mug but a million times more punchable.

I calculated the odds again, just to make sure, and reviewed the other player’s faces. The woman most likely had a weak hand, the man - very hard to say. It was freezing in here, even when time was stopped. Though the temperature of the room was a constant, it was eerily silent, and my mind made phantom sounds as my ears tried to hear sounds that weren’t there. Sometimes the whole scene flickered, and my vision went black, before the same frozen world re-appeared around me. My hands felt numb and I set my cards down to rub them together. I tried picking them back up again, but they had become part of the scene, and my hand went right through them, as well the entire table itself. I’d known of this ability of mine for a decade now, but I had come no closer to figuring out how it worked. I wanted to wrap this up quickly though, and I starting focusing on re-animating everything. It was like trying to awake from sleep paralysis; squeezing my eyes open and closed, focusing on breathing steadily, listening for sounds that should be there and watching for movement that was supposed to be happening all around me.

“Your turn, Tiny,” the woman said, her voice was silky, but I could sense a hint of irritation. Good.
“Raise,” I said, confidently, meeting her eyes. My stomach rumbled. Ugh, I just wanted to go. Sometimes I wish I could speed up time instead. Actually, I wished that all the time. Then, I drew a club.

About 20 minutes later I exited the building, $2,500 richer, leaving behind its brightly colored lights and bouts of uproarious conversation, laughter and arguments behind. New York in the winter was devastatingly frigid. It was a wet and clinging cold that made me want to return to my apartment, bundle up in a mountain of blankets and never go outside again.

But... I had an AA meeting to go to. I had promised Erina I’d go tonight, as she seemed confident that there’d be new faces. While I was always excited to meet new people, the high amount of turnover in the past year was concerning. Actually, I was the only one of the original gang left from when AA had started, a little over a year and a half ago. It wasn’t uncommon for people to go to only one or two meetings every once in a while, or just stop appearing, but I had lost touch with nearly everyone who had been in the initial group of eight that spring. Erina had said that people come and go, but I could see that she was concerned as well. And she was supposed to be like a homing beacon for people like us, so what was that supposed to mean?

And yes, I know what you’re thinking. Alcoholics are supposed to get better and move on, that’s what Alcoholics Anonymous is all about. But this wasn’t that AA. It was Atypicals Anonymous, a term Erina had coined, given that it catered to those with strange and unusual abilities. It was meant to be a support group, and while Erina had helped me control my powers, I hadn’t made a single friend who hadn’t disappeared since that first meeting. People just came and went, or, if you were a bit anxious like myself, you could say they vanished. It was kind of funny, in a sad way: the image of myself sitting in the same chair, seemingly frozen in time, as a rotating cast of atypicals appeared and disappeared week after week.



Erina was...complicated. Even after a year of knowing her through AA meetings, I never felt a single step closer to her. She would arrive dressed like a senioritis plagued college student, which in the Winter mean an oversized fluffy parka over an old sweatshirt and leggings. She was brilliant, I had attended one of her psychology lectures at Brown, and she was almost uncomfortably apt at getting to the root of whatever problem you asked her about. She truly seemed truly committed to building the first Atypical community of its kind. But anyone could tell you that behind that laid-back demeanor and bright mind, there was something weighing on her that she wasn’t ready to open up about, and maybe never would be.

Erina also moved a hundred miles a minute. She would be going on long, unannounced trips to investigate “atypical activity” (in her words), she seemed to be collecting all the info she possibly could on an organization called Obsidian, and she spent a good deal of time on “community outreach,” which is how she described her methods for finding and inviting new atypicals. I was both fascinated, and alarmed, at her dedication.

I was the first to arrive at the meeting, which was typical for me. I was always early to everything, and I felt like the icy wind nearly blew me into the small, cozy building that was the Central Park Community Center. Erina had booked the latest slot in the schedule, and there were no meetings before ours, so this remote area of the park, concealed by a dense stand of trees, was desolate. It was already getting dark, and and the only lights were the ones emanating from the wood and stone structure that seemed in this moment like the only warm place in the universe. Erina was blasting Rush as she set up about twelve folding chairs in a neat ring. She'd turn it off when the meeting started, but it seemed to get her in a contemplative mood or something. Somehow she always knew how many people were coming, even if someone stumbled in late or had seemingly come by accident. It was one of those times when I wondered if she was leaving out some important details about her powers. She was dressed in yoga pants and a grey sweatshirt, and her short brown hair was windblown.

“Thalia! So good to see you!" She said before turning around. When she did, and she saw me, she sighed. "You wore nothing but a blazer and that skirt out in this weather? Poker night?"

"Every night's poker night..." I responded, a little sheepishly. Yeah, we'd talked about poker a lot. She found my gameplay philosophy fascinating. However, I sometimes felt like a lab rat when she asked me all sorts of questions about my thought process and emotional state while playing, and if it effected my abilities. Was I tempted to cheat? Did I consider giving myself extra time to evaluate each hand to be cheating? This time though, she seemed to sense that I wasn't in the mood and shrugged it off.

"We have a lot of new faces tonight! And I believe Lan, from last week, will be returning!” She gave me one of her terse smiles, and then kept setting up. We small-talked a bit as I passed her a couple of chairs.

When she finished, she began setting up the snack table. Danishes, it was always danishes. But for some reason she had also included a carton of whole milk, and a carton of soy milk. That was new. I grabbed a cream cheese danish and settled into my favorite chair, and waited for the others to arrive.

Erina always left about a half an hour in the beginning for socializing. Then, the meeting would start out like usual, with Erina reminding us of the motto of AA (“Benign Anarchy”) and the three pillars (Unity, Stability and Responsibility). Then we would go around in a circle and introduce ourselves. She would usually have interesting prompts, and we would be able to share how we were feeling. Her prompts were sometimes basic, like “What was one good thing, and one bad thing that happened to you this week.” But they could also be incredibly odd, like “What inanimate object do you wish you could eliminate from existence.” Newcomers could ask questions, or just listen. And then, at the end, we would stuff our face with more danishes, and just get to know one another. It could be truly benign anarchy, but what do you expect when you invite a group of atypicals into a small room to talk about feelings?

“Order coming up, Mister Lin!” I gave a quick shout to notify the last customer of the night. From inside the street side restaurant, it was obvious how cold the outside world was. The few people still lingering late in the evening were dressed warmly; steam from their breath clearly visible, but inside it was hot. Gas stoves in tight quarters tend to make things pretty warm, and while everyone else was freezing I was sweating.

With a quick tilt of the pan, I dumped the assortment of stir fried meat and vegetables into a cardboard to-go container and passed it over the counter. An alarm went off on my phone to mark that my shift was over and it was time to close up, so I flicked off the gas so the pans could cool back down. “I hope she gets here soon, don’t wanna be late…” I hadn’t actually been scheduled to work tonight as the owner’s son usually took this shift, but he had come down sick so I offered to fill in for him. As I started to close the shutters dividing the enclosed kitchen from the street, I heard the click of a door as my manager stepped inside.

“Thank you for taking Jun’s shift, Lan. You look like you have somewhere to be. Go on, I can close up for the night.”

I’d had a lot of bosses, bit Miss Cheng was one of my favorites. A friend of my grandma’s, actually, “Thanks Nana Cheng. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I gave her a quick hug before rushing out of the shop, pausing to grab my backpack. The fastest way home was cutting through the alley behind A Simple Wok and climbing the fire escape, and I needed to get my jacket. It was hot inside, but as soon I was in the open air the cold hit me like a ton of bricks. For all the advantages my abilities came with, I had no resilience against extreme temperatures; and I had a long way to travel for tonight’s meeting.


Isn’t exactly what most people would call a quick bike ride away, and far from being walking distance, but I’d made further trips for worse reasons. I stopped pedaling and coasted up to the Central Park Community Center, checking for familiar cars and bikes as I arrived. I’d made good time getting here so, I guess I was a bit ahead of the others. I stopped to catch my breath and brushed a crimson lock out of my face, tucking it behind my ear. “Damn, must’ve lost a clip on my way over.” Oh well, not a big deal. I retrieved the bike lock from my backpack and secured my bike to a rack near the front door. I didn’t expect anyone to steal it, and even if they did it wasn’t a big deal - I could always buy another one. But I liked this bike.

As I stepped inside, I could hear the tail end of some unfamiliar song echoing from a stereo set up near the refreshment table. Boxcar Joe had talked about Erina before, and mentioned she liked to listen to Rush while she was setting up for meetings. I’d arrived late last time so I hadn’t seen it firsthand. “Good evening, Doctor Slate.” I piped up cheerfully as I stepped inside, shedding my winter coat and taking note of a well dressed girl with curly brown hair. I wish my hair was curly, but that was one thing I hadn’t inherited from mom “And… Thalia, right?” I inquired, snagging a bear claw from the pile of danishes and grabbing the seat nearest to the other early arrival.

I tucked myself as far back into the folding chair as possible so I could sit cross legged without falling over. Easier than it sounded, owing to my naturally thin frame. “You’re dressed fancy. Just get in from a date or something?” I asked, twisting myself abruptly in my seat to face her. The shifting weight caused the folding chair to rotate in place, eliciting a brief but high-pitched squeak against the tile floor. I winced, putting on an apologetic smile, “Sorry.”

Kyle thought he'd be used to bedrest by now, he'd barely left his apartment in the last 3 weeks, in part because his doctor told him not to and also because he wanted to limit his exposure to speeding cars or strangers his mind might trip and fall into. But today was the day, he'd have to start returning to normalcy sooner or later, and what better way to start than by going to a fake Alcoholics meeting which is actually for people who can do "atypical" things like possess a stranger's body. Okay, so normalcy was the wrong word, but he'd need to start becoming active in the world somehow, he couldn't just sit on his couch watching reruns of Community and waiting for someone to come visit. No, today he was gonna call a cab, get to Central Park and then walk to this weird meeting at the community center. It was final.

Now that he had decided that, he just had to wait 6 hours before it was time to go.....



Kyle was so, so, so, so very bored.

Why did time have to move so slowly? There was still an hour to go before it would even be remotely acceptable to leave! And that's if he wanted to be an eager beaver and turn up to this super-sketchy event nice and early. Which, to be honest, he kinda did want to, but only because of how bored he was. He had drawn the view from outside his bedroom window so many times he could make a whole art show and just title it "What happens when you're stuck inside for a month". That wasn't actually the worst idea. The modern art crowd would go wild for it, probably. But he wasn't exactly in the ideal financial situation to try and rent out an exhibition space. Nor did anyone actually explain how you go about setting up an art show, during his years at Empire State College's Creative Arts department. He assumed it was expensive.

Almost begrudgingly, Kyle flipped open his sketchbook to a blank page and started to draw something new. A picture of a guy in a superhero costume, being hit by a taxi which crumpled instantly. The superhero looked kinda dumb, to be honest, and Kyle didn't feel great about the shading, but it was at least enough to put a small smile on his face.



Time had come, Kyle rung up a taxi service (no, not the same one that had shattered his pelvis and a dozen other bones and put him in a coma. A different, hopefully slower, taxi service). He left and locked up his apartment, leaving a sticky note on the door which said "Doc said to start stretching my legs, out for a bit - Kyle". He doubted it would be necessary, but he didn't want Mrs Zhang to worry if she did come by for a visit and nobody answered the door. Feeling satisfied, he walked down the single flight of stairs (again, slowly) and made it to his building's front door. He swung open the door with the confidence of a man who hadn't been hit by a car recently, and took a step out the door.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooope. Nope. Nope. No, no, no, noooooope. Too cold. He'd wait for the taxi inside.

A few minutes passed, which he spent looking at his phone and at one point pretending his cane was a rapier. He knew it was dorky, but boredom stops you from caring so much. Eventually, the cab arrived, and he rushed as quickly as he would dare from the building to the warm interior of the cab. His driver was a friendly middle-aged man, who told Kyle his name but Kyle forgot it almost immediately and spent the entire journey referring to him as "Dude" or "Man", whilst feeling intensely guilty and self-conscious about the fact he couldn't remember what the guy said his name was. He was almost relieved when the ride was over, and he could step out into the frigid air again. Almost. Awkwardness was mildly better than this biting chill. Regardless, he limped his way through the park towards the community center, and was finally inside.

His leg was killing him, even worse than his back, but he managed to put on an (admittedly fake) smile as he entered the room with the meeting. "Is this the A.A. meeting? I'm new." He said, sheepishly. The room was 3 women, one of which was showing way too much skin for this weather, she honestly made him feel very under-dressed, with his sweatpants and knitted Hanukkah sweater that his mom made him one year. It was a nice sweater, bright blue with white Stars of David all along it, and a menorah in the middle, he was very impressed when she gave it to him. Still felt like he was probably the worst-looking person here, so far. Great start.

He grabbed himself a doughnut from the table, and a glass of soy milk, which he almost spilled because he was holding them both in one hand, and hobbled over to a seat, the closest one to him. This put him a few seats away from the two girls who were already here, but reduced the odds of him pouring an entire glass of milk on them dramatically, which he was fine with. Sitting his cane down by his side, and trying to find a seating position which didn't hurt his back, he prepared himself for whatever it was that would come next.

---

Location: Somewhere in Midtown
Time: A day before her first AA meeting
Days sober: 57

---

To say it hadn't been the best day would've been an understatement. This day fucking sucked. That's what I thought as I was sitting in a park, eating my already cold Chinese take-away while watching some poor homeless man feed pigeons on his piece of cardboard. How he had the means to do that, I didn't know. But I didn't really care either. My fingers were cold and pale as they clutched the chopsticks in my hand. My hair shifted on my face as I tried to eat the last bits of the cooled off noodles, and I got a tuft of curly hair in my mouth. Damned wind.
I hadn't slept a second last night. Even my sleeping pills hadn't been able to chase away the horrid fever dream-ish things that followed whenever my eyes closed. Living in a block of flats in the midst of a busy street wasn't my best choice of residence, but it was the cheapest, so I didn't have much I could complain about. Sometimes I was fortunate enough to get the night shift in the fast food place, but today my shift had been one of the day ones. This was my lunch break; it was ironic I was eating a take-away when I was working in a place that would let me eat there for free. I wouldn't touch the food with a long stick, though. Just working with it and seeing all the grease was enough to turn me off of it.
I realised I'd been spacing off only as my eyes started burning from dryness. I blinked, noticing I had been staring into the distance for god knows how long. The blinks moisturized by eyes but gave me painful flashes of mixed feelings, whispers of thoughts and a pang of migraine. It was bad enough that I had gotten hardly any sleep, I had to have a damned migraine too, didn't I? God, I was so tired.
Yawning, I got up from the cold bench, leaving the half empty take-away behind me, and returned to my work station across the street.

Later, after I got off my shift, was the time I had been waiting for. My baby brother was in town and I wanted to meet him. It had been a while since I'd last seen him. Maybe it would go well this time, you know? I knew he didn't like my lifestyle, but now that I was sober, I actually harbored a hope of him agreeing to get back in touch with me. I missed him so much.

"Hi, Camilla."
"Hi, Titus," I smiled as I opened my arms in an invitation of a hug. Hesitantly he hugged back, almost as if holding back. I hated it. "You've grown so much since the last I saw you!" I noted as I pulled back, examining my brother's appearance. He had grown a stubble, but his attire was very formal. Law school it was, then.
"Yeah," he answered distantly, ruffling his curly hair, then adjusting his tie awkwardly. "Look, what did you want, Cam? More money, is that it?" Titus seemed a bit frustrated, and I felt a pang of hurt at his words, forcing my eyes closed. He really hadn't forgiven me for how I behaved back then, huh? 'She looks so tired... she's drunk, isn't she?'
I felt a strong sense of claustrophobia overtake me as the beating of my brother's heart filled my ears, his thoughts swirling into my ears. I was filled with disgust for myself, disgust but also... disappointment. I felt disappointed, and I knew that wasn't my own feelings, but his. I swallowed hard and forced my eyes open. Mom and dad had really got into Titus' head over the past few years. He really thought I was still his drunk big sister, didn't he?
"No, ac-actually," I forced out as I felt my throat close up, "It's not. And I'm sober. 57 days to be exact. I just wanted to see my little brother." This seemed to surprise Titus since his eyebrows shot up, as if I had read his thoughts. Which, in fact, I had done, albeit accidentally. I hadn't meant to. Still, I saw Titus' expression change from surprised to slightly cold. Now the disappointment I felt wasn't his, but my own.
"Okay. Cool. Well, I'm here, you've seen me. I actually need to go now, so if there's nothing else..."
I sighed in defeat. Titus didn't understand. Mom and dad had never understood. What I had was a disease, I couldn't help it. I tried like hell, I really did. But they always judged me when I had needed them the most. They didn't have any idea what it was, living with this... this... curse, it had to be. Taking a deep breath, I shook my head. "No, it's okay. You go ahead. It was... it was nice to see you, pumpkin."
"Nice to see you too. Bye." With that, he was gone, and what I had been waiting for for the entire week was over, just like that. My mind screamed in agony and a hot, painful throbbing behind my eyes intensified.

I needed a drink.

---

---

Location: From East Village to Central Park
Time: The day of her first AA meeting
Days sober: 0

---

Great, just great. My first thought upon waking up was: I fucking disgust myself.
There was an intense throbbing behind my eyes, which only intensified as I opened the curtains and let the daylight in. The cars' noises and the screaming horns pierced my ears and made me hold my head in pain. What a better way to begin your first day at a support group than being absolutely hungover.
Despite from apparently having passed out, my last memory being the smelly floor of some bar, I had ended up safely in my own bed. That, and I felt absolutely no more refreshed than I would if I hadn't slept at all. Sometimes life just loved beating my sorry ass, didn't it?
Freshening up by taking a long shower helped only so much when every time I saw light I felt compelled to shield my eyes from it by closing them, only to be confronted with the onslaught of emotions from the flats around me, emotions that weren't my own. Or maybe the signals came from the street, because it was already midday so people would be at work and shit, I was almost late for the meeting.
Today was my day off so of course I hadn't thought about needing to actually get up today. Well, good thing I actually remembered the group meeting. Although at this point I was heavily hoping it to be an actual AA group than something else. I could really use some control in my life.

The journey from my flat to Central Park was agonising. People had such petty problems, who'd have thought people were thinking about stuff like that while commuting in the subway? Alien emotions violated my mind every time I closed my eyes, even for a fucking blink. Flashes of heartbeats, of white figures against the darkness of my eyelids, weird and private thoughts I had no right seeing but couldn't help recieving. The whole way there I felt sad, miserable, then suddenly annoyed, annoyed but in a different way, and then almost manically happy. I just wanted a break from it, and since I had already broken my soberity once... No. I wouldn't touch a bottle anymore. I wouldn't. I'd drown the need to drink by eating shrimp flavored corn chips if I had to (that's what I was craving currently, it appeared), but I wouldn't drink. For my sake, and my family's. They'd learn to understand me one day.

After wondering around for a while, I felt like I had come to a right place. At least there were others here and the chairs were assembled in such a manner I thought they must've been for the meeting. In the room there were three women and a man. The atmosphere in the room was odd, charged, somehow. When I closed my eyes, the first thing that greeted me was a feeling of being the worst looking person around here. Wait, what? No I wasn't, that wasn't how I felt. It must've been someone else here. I forced my eyes open, not wanting to feel anyone's mind but my own.
"Uhm, I suppose this is the right place? Like, the AA group thingie," I said, adjusting my glasses. Wow, the women looked very energisized. Except one of them, who just looked calm and was radiating some odd energy I couldn't quite put my finger on.
"Yes, you must be one of the newcomers," the same woman greeted with a polite smile. She said it in such a voice which made me feel like she already knew who I was, knew I was supposed to be here. It gave me a chill. "I'm Erina, the organisizer of these meetings. You can take whichever seat you'd like, make yourself comfortable."
Nodding, I looked over at the pile of danishes, hunger filling me. Not quite what I was craving, but they'd do. My heels clipped against the floor as I walked over to the table before going to take a seat next to a fizzy haired brunette, staying rather silent.

The black sharpie stained the inside of the taxi, some would-be skrifter either being ironic or simply clueless. There were about a thousand better places to tag than the inside of the door handle of Taxi #446. Still, Heph loved a challenge. More importantly, HEPHAESTUS LOVES YOU. It was hard to etch his fingernails small enough to fit the whole engraving into the handle but it would be worth it when some local schmuck felt the warm embrace of his sermon while trying to scramble out of this sLOW ASS FUCKING TAXI. "Dude, we've been in traffic for 8 days what the fuck is goin' on?"

The taxi driver ignored him.

"So much for service with a smile, huh?" Heph dug into his faded jeans and through several twenties from his latest commission at the mute and bailed. It was only a few more blocks and he'd walked further in the biting goddamn cold holy shit - "and I immediately regret this decision..." And he was off. The many bangles and necklaces he wore jangled and clanged as the idiot careened through the streets in his thin ass stupid jacket. He really should have planned better.

"Four blocks isn't so bad if you keep moving" he lied breathlessly. "Besides, the doctor recommended more cardio, didn't he? You'll be fine. Brisk mountain air and all that. Brisk smoggy industrial piss flavored air." Heph continued to rant to himself as he finally neared his destination, the lights bringing the promise of warmth...and snacks! "It's like roughage for your lungs, the shriveling biting cold. It's good for you but difficult, like a fast. It's like breathing Ramadan. Truly a beacon of manliness and - "

Heph burst through the door wheezing, thankful as all hell to be once more in the warm bosom of civilization...and potentially the warm bosom of a warm bosom. He locked eyes with a small bird of a woman.

"Nice..."
Another ragged breath.
"Jacket..."

---

---

Apartment Block 3, Midtown, sometime around 9 AM.

---

My fingers hurt. I've been typing non stop for the past half hour and I barely have five thousand words. This is possibly one of the only downsides to doing what I do. The goddamned writers block. Sure, three thousand words in half an hour may seem like a lot, but it's not. Not really. I want to write a frickin novel, not a one shot short story.

Sliding my laptop to my left, I bang my head down on my desk and stare blankly at the wall. I'm considering disintegrating it, just for something interesting to happen and give me some inspiration. Years ago I would have thought I could've become a super hero with powers like mine, but I didn't. My powers don't exactly hold up to the super hero codes and morale's or whatever, since my powers can literally pick something apart and erase them from this plane of existence.

Course, I have little idea of how to actually use my powers on much more than a garbage can, when I accidentally turned one into literally nothing. There was a small flash, and poof, gone. Anti-matter is weird like that. At least that's what I assume my powers have to do with.

I honestly don't know.

Whatever, being a superhero wouldn't have paid the bills anyways. It's hard enough being outside anyways without having a double identity to worry about.

The wall isn't yielding any of it's secrets, nor am I going to destroy it. It'd probably come out of my bill even if the landlord couldn't find any way of pinning it on me, and then I'd have a large hole in my room for however-damn-long. Peeling my cheek off the wooden table, my eyes move towards the poster I had mistakenly grabbed yesterday. Foolish of me, but I had already filled out the sheet that came with it, and the meeting was...early tomorrow. Great.

I hate going to social gatherings... I hate people...I hate the society I'm forced to live in. I know my inner thoughts make me sound like an anti-social asshole, but that's basically how I've lived my life. A fly buzzes by and hits the window, trying to get to the chilly outside of the building. Flies never learn, that's what sets me apart from them.

I know very well I don't have to go to the gathering, but... I haven't had anything to eat but cheap pizza in weeks, and as great as pizza is, some kinds of pizza taste terrible, and you can only live off of pizza for so long, even with vegetables. Goddamn gross.

I'll go there for the food, that's it. That's what I keep telling myself, even as I head for my bed for an early sleep, but deep down, I know why I'm really going.

I never knew that a life without others could get so lonely.

---

---

Lost track of location, goddamn cold...maybe central park?

---

Somebody end my suffering. Please. Kill me and be done with it. I hate the cold, not that I can't handle it, but I hate it like I hate being out in public, and since the cold is always outside, combine two things I hate into one.

I think I'm getting close to the building, can't tell, in the cold I always lose track of where I'm going cuz I'm to busy thinking about how much I hate everything. Maybe I should have grown a beard, at least that would help, or maybe a scarf, nope not in my budget right now.

My jeans aren't exactly winter material, but they work surprisingly well against the cold. Problem is, I forgot to buy winter boots before most of my money dried up and I'm stuck wearing my sad non-winter proof sandshoes. They aren't bad sneakers by any means, but they aren't the most well equipped to deal with snow and water, both of which are somewhat prominent in the winter time here in our fair city. Bah.

I decided not to dress like a total casual, so I wore my only dress short under my dark winter jacket today. It's one of those ones with the wooly interiors, so it looks both cool and it's warm. Sadly the zipper's broken and I don't have any gloves. Everything sucks. I hate everything. Well, maybe not everything, food is always a perk me up.

Stepping through the door shortly after another man, one who was trying to catch his breath after what must have been a bloody marathon, I saunter past him silently and head straight up to the food table. Are those...oh my god those are Danishes. The sweet cheesy nectar of the gods. I swipe two, ignoring any glares, and take a seat at one of the empty chairs, munching on one of the Danishes with an almost cheerful smile. The flavor was rushing through me like a wave of utter ecstasy.

Delicious.

Nodding to the woman who had organized this, more as a respectful gesture then anything, I continued to savor the lovely taste of the food, trying to pretend I was the only one in the room.

---

---

---

It was Y2K and my Dad was on the porch watching the Park across the Boulevard, it had been snowing and any damage done by the kids to the pure white world covered over and restored. It was the dreaded day when the world was supposed to crash into the sea burned by a programming mistake and there I was snuggled up to my dad. I was cute I suppose all legs and spindly arms resembling a fawn with the innocent green eyes of a child.

My dad was a tall thin man so I blame him for what is kindly called a lithe figure which is code for skinny and flat. So I stopped Fallback holding the image of my past so that I could walk around myself knowing my neighbors might be watching me real time wondering what I was looking at.

My eyes were the same ones as my mom, soft moss green almost feline and in the 5 year old me not yet haunted by the things I would see; how many times have I done this? What am I expecting, that with myself I might actually make a connection in the empty world.

Released the scene moved till my mom came out and demanded my dad come in before I caught cold so he threw me over his shoulder saying “Forgive a man for wanting to spend time with his baby girl, at once your majesty and a bit more”

Facing as I was at 5 I couldn’t see my mom and dad kissing after mom shut the door because as a sack of potatoes I was facing the wrong direction. How my mom glowed and my dad stood breathless when they broke their kiss; I wish I could find that.

Dad put me down and I ran into the kitchen to grab a fresh cookie and when I returned sat on the couch and watched my dad dance with mom. The were fantastic together as they Danced a Tango. When I was 5 it looked like fun but now through adult eyes I saw the passion all the older neighbors still speak about to this day. My mother was beautiful and a sensual creature that my dad worshiped...it's strange I don’t have siblings.

I could have stayed there all day if Derrick hadn’t appeared beside me.

“Angel the car is here”

---

---

I was back in my house in what passed for the now and there was Derrick my only real friend and I was losing him to three little girls who needed to see their daddy more often and i was a little jealous. People thought we were lovers but that was never the case for either of us, when he and i meet he originally held me in awe but as time passed by he learned just how messed up I was and treated me like his special needs cousin; at least that’s how I teased him.

”I was just watching some old memories” I said to Derrick as he helped me into my long dark brown trench coat

”Yeah well one of the days you’re gonna want to stay Angel then what? You can love the past girl but you gotta think of the now, the here and we both know you need your own peeps. To everybody round here you’re the crazy lady or the witchy woman so they may be friendly they still don’t know what it is to be you.” He would have gone if I had allowed him, telling me how i needed to get out and mingle, meet people.

”I am going as you can see Derrick I said pushing him towards the door.

”And this time?” he asked as he held the gate of my fence open for me.

”This time I talk to someone for at least 5 minutes and if the 1st person isn’t 5 minutes I pick someone else and so on till someone talks to me for more than 5 minutes….still think it’s like speed dating” I said as I walked to the passenger door and waited for him to open it.

---

---

We had exchanged our usual Banter as Derrick drove me to the edge of Strawberry Fields and dropped me off. It was a crisp day and I was early but lucky for me I had my triple turkish coffee and a warm scarf to hold off the first wave of winter coming on. The Bridle path now a bit lonely and only had a pair of the park’s mounted police cantering along it looking out for trouble. Where were they when Franklin Groggins a 23 year old black man was stabbed to death for 8 dollars at the top of the stairs or when they dragged Amy McDanvers into the bushes that stood there near the same spot where Franklin died. I really couldn’t fault the police except for how they handled the two cases, Franklin as black and Amy had to turn tricks so they didn’t count, especially in 1964 and 73.

I planed on finding them at least some form of justice even though their cases were as old as they were, its what I do. I am a licensed Private Eye, a real Dick like in the old Noir movies my office even in a 5 story walk up on the 5th floor of a building that was built in 57.

To me the world is literally an open book waiting to be read and I have the time to read it. I admit I’d be as lost without my quirk, gift, or curse. Sure I lose track of when I am but others daydream and it's about the same I just have a better selection.

Then I was on the walk to the meeting, the old Victorian dance hall a faded reminder of when the City believed in itself and its place in the world.

I was blockaded briefly by a much used door which held flashes of everyone who’d touched it in the last three days and I know I made quite a funny sight standing there staring at the handle. Then I was saved by a man who opened the door because men did that for ladies or used to.

This was a crowded place historically but as far as I could tell no murders or other nasty business which made blanking it easy. So once more i stood out in hesitation inside the door almost being run down by a woman hurrying in followed by the sound of what sounded like a large pride of cats outside. Maybe she was the mythical lady women dressed as and outside her cat servants but I didn’t really want to look outside and see I was right so I moved inside and found a place to observe and blank as I sipped my hot devil’s brew.

Joseph Clark sat just across the street from the community center, wondering why he hadn't worked out this part of the plan before getting there. It was pretty cold out here, even with the fur covering his body, so he kind of wanted to get inside quickly, but he had another goal which meant he couldn't just strut over and open it with his aura. What was this goal, you ask? Well, it was one of those goals worthy of respect and admiration, an ambition that no one could fault, for deep down, everyone knows that they too long to achieve such a thing...

He wanted to screw with them.

The plan was simple. Go in, act just like your average, non-sapient stray cat, and sit on one of the seats that someone else would want, like one near the snack table. Then he'd wait for someone to try and take it, and when they try to shoo him away or put him on the floor or whatever, he'd tell them to piss off, and maybe go on a little rant about how he had just as much of a right to be there as any of the others. Hell, maybe he'd call them speciest or something, just to round it out.

Oh, god damn it! Another person had just walked in while he was lost in thoughts again! This was why he was still out here in the cold, because he couldn't use his aura or he'd ruin the surprise, but cats are too frackin' weak to open doors! All he could do was wait for someone else to do it and sprint through before it could swing closed.

As he narrated the situation in his head, because that's just something you end up doing when you don't feel safe enough to talk to another human being for a little over two years, another person approached the building, some redhead who looked like he was currently hating everything about life. This time though, Josephwas ready, and by the time the guy was pushing open the door, he had already dashed across the road and into the warmth. Now that he was inside, he suppressed the urge to shout with joy, because damn it, he was not going to ruin the plan now that he'd finally made it past step one!

Instead, he distracted himself by looking around the room. It was nice. Nothing special, but nice... Essentially, it was exactly how he remembered it from way back in the day. Hell, even the snack table was still there, and sadly, as he'd suspected, there was a distinct lack of the whiskey he'd requested.

And there was Eri.

Honestly, he almost broke character and said something right then and there, just because... Well, it was the first time he'd seen anyone he would've called a friend since his death. The fact that no one else from those days seemed to be at the meeting only served to make it even harder not to.

However, after a mere moment, he forced the instinct down, because he'd spent a little over a month planning this reveal, so damn it, it was gonna be a good one!

Still, the sheer relief and happiness was a little too much to fully suppress, so he made do by approaching her and softly nudging her shin with his head in that way that only cats can, before heading over to the chair he'd targeted, which just so happened to be the closest to the snack table, and jumped up on to it. After a moment of maneuvering himself into a good position, he curled up and lay down, keeping an eye on the rest of the rooms inhabitants as he rested.

Yes, he was approaching the most crucial part of his master plan, but it couldn't hurt to take advantage of the warmth and get a little comfortable, right?

//moved//

---

Location: AA meeting
State of mind: Lost in a memory, startled by the weird cat
Days sober: Still 0

---

I remembered the times Titus and I played hide and seek. He must've not been older than 4, yet he had such a strong sense of justice, even back then. Our little lawyer.
'Mooooom, tell Cam she needs to play the seeker for once! I always seek! It's not fair! Not! Fair!' He would stomp around the room until he got what he wanted, but usually he'd end up remembering why I was never a seeker in that game.
'Camie, you have to keep your eyes closed so you don't see where I hide!' Pause. 'Nuh-uh, you can't just look away. Keep your eyes closed or I'll make you! It's the rule, Cam!' Silence. '...Daddy, Cam's crying again. I did nothing, I swear! I just wanted her to play hide and seek with me. I swear I did nothing, she just started doing that creepy thing with her eyes again and then, then she just started crying! Make her stop, dad!'
And then were the times when I actually did close my eyes and count like a good sport. I still didn't know why it was sometimes easier than other times. I thought it could be just a matter of how many people there were in my presence. I didn't know.
'Cam, no fair! I know you're cheating somehow, you always find me so easy!'
'Well, don't hide in easy places, then,' I remembered answering like the sassy brat I had been.
'Don't look where I hide, it's not fun!' Titus would argue. He was right, it wasn't fair, nor was it fun. But it wasn't my fault I could just see where he went even behind my closed eyes. The white shadows did not disappear behind corners. I was unbeatable. I was the best. I was the winner. But then came the pain and the noise, and it wouldn't stop.

---

The minutes seemed to be ticking by agonizingly slow. One by one, more people would turn up, bringing a whiff of the cold air from outside with them. Most of them followed the same pattern, being attracted to the snack table like a paper clip to a magnet, before moving to sit down and being weirdly quiet. It made me wonder if these people actually knew each other from before or not. You'd think it wasn't everyone's first meeting... right? Or had the group just begun? Honestly I didn't know because it wasn't like I had done a thorough background check on this. I acknowledged my tendency to be rather impulsive. It was much more fun to go with the flow than to plan things out and ruin the surprise. My life was enough a pain in my ass as it was, I didn't need the stress of having to design a timetable for every damned second of it.
...That sure was a depressing thought. Was I being influenced or was that just me? I looked around, shifting my half glove clad hands around on my lap. I pulled on the end of a unravelling string poking out of the finger hole of my glove, twisting it around my pinkie like I was trying to strangle it. The glove kept coming apart more, the annoying string getting longer as I pulled it with the swirling motion of my finger. Finally I gave up trying to snap the string and let it be, trying to shift my attention elsewhere.
That's when I saw the cat.
I felt my eyebrows rise, I'm not going to lie. There it was, a black cat, sitting, just sitting there on the chair closest to the snack table. Well, more like lying down, but still. It was looking at everyone, looking at me, and it had the most extraordinary green eyes. There was something wise, almost mischievous in its expression. Almost as if it was aware somehow. Whose cat was it?
As I closed my eyes, the familiarly overwhelming world opened before me. Among the darkness there were dim figures, people, sitting or standing right where they were in the real world. The white noise in my ears got louder as I tried to make sense of the sensation. Being hungover only intensified the onslaught of feelings I recieved from the other people in the room. Stray thoughts swirled inside my head, but I couldn't quite place who they belonged to. It was hard to see clearly when there were many people in the room, but at least the minds of the people outside on the street didn't carry inside.
What startled me, however, what was I saw in the darkness of my closed eyes. Beside the snack table, there was another white shadow of a person, their heart beating before my eyes and breath close my ears even though I was sitting across from them. My eyes snapped open like I had been awakened by a nightmare, but the only thing I could see beside the snack table was that same black cat. I was gaping, before I quickly closed off my expression and checked again. Yep, still there.

Now's probably the time to mention that my powers, or curse, as I liked to think, had some limitations. One of them being that I could only sense people's minds. Not those of animals'. I had never seen something like this, so you should understand that I was pretty rightfully freaking out. I could not see animals' thoughts. I could not feel their emotions. So why was I there, looking inside the mind of a fucking cat? How could I be sure if it even was a cat? Just how hungover was I?

'That's it,' I thought. I was never drinking again.

Heph slowly regained his composure and wandered further into the room. "Yo is this the place? You know, the PLACE." His voiced carried to no one and anyone. They all seemed nice enough but far too quiet for his tastes. Quiet means thoughts and thoughts are bad, m'kay. "I, uh, got a flyer for an AA MEETING and just wanna make sure this is the plaaaace." Unfortunately for Heph he was competing with a tray of danishes and a ridiculous amount of milk.

"Seriously, what's up with y'all and milk? And nobody even got some for the cat?" Meandering toward the snack table, several bangles clanged together as he filled one calloused hand with dairy and brought it to the nearby feline's face. "Who brought him anyway? Black cats are bad luck."

---

---

As I checked my black rubber band watch, I realized I would have to leave the campus library soon. I looked over my notes one last time, admiring the slanting cursive of my penmanship, the blue-inked pages inter-spread by a colourful title or occasional underlining here and there. Yeah, I was one of those people who still made hand-written notes, but I think I was much better off compared to the crazy dedicated ones who took the time to make sure all their notes were neat, writing them in block letters. Block letters! You might as well do everything in Word.

I closed my notebook, it was one of those leaf binder styles, cheap but pretty. I stashed it and all my other things into a light olive-green backpack with a pattern of dark-leaves-and-flowers. I headed outside and had to squint as the natural winter light made my eyes water. It was only mid-afternoon. I would have usually stayed studying well into the evening. But today, I had to leave early not because of the shorter opening hours on Fridays and weekends, but because I had my first AA meeting scheduled all the way up in Central Park. If I told people it was actually meant for superpowered people, they’d put me into the madhouse straight away, so if I had to say anything at all, I’d say it was a therapy group. Those that know me well would just nod knowingly, might even comment how good it was of me trying to get a handle on my anger issues. Yeah, I’d get pissed at ‘em for it. Goes to show how right they are, I guess. I took a deep inhale and thought about how nice it was to be in a good mood. I usually am when I get to focus on a task. So, there was absolutely no reason to get irritated, especially not for something so simple as a passing thought. I kept chanting No reason for irritation, good mood, nice crisp winter weather, good mood, no anger at myself, but could feel my facial muscles doing their best to terrify the poor passers-by with the whole gargoyle impersonation schtick they were trying to pull off.

By the time I reached and unlocked my bike – a nice black-and-white road bike I could ride year-round excepting cases of black ice or too deep snow – I had to press myself not to start growling. The 15 to 20 minutes of furious pedalling towards my rental apartment room managed to cool me down, both figuratively and literally. I felt my lungs starting to freeze and had to mentally brace myself for the upcoming the hour-long ride I would have to make to Central Park, and another to get back home. I shivered thinking about it, even though my body had warmed up some due to the exercise, locked up my bike, and entered the common room of our apartment. Someone, Reggie at least, must have recently been there, because I saw some left-over Mexican food. I heated it up, not feeling like a thief – we had a sort of an arrangement; everyone contributed whatever they could for the co-residents, and we all ended up better for it. It was real nice but not a thing you saw nearly enough. Rare, even. Especially with people having to move out. I knew of cases around here where people had been evicted for no reason other than bigoted jerks existing. I suddenly felt the urge to bash someone’s head in. The best alternative I had right then was digging into my food with more force than was strictly necessary.

After my meal, I quickly showered, put on my long black athletic pants, a white-striped dark blue long-sleeved shirt, a hoodie with a multi-coloured vibrant tiger print, and my usual camo winter coat last. For the cold, I also added a dark grey woollen beanie and scarf, black faux-leather gloves, and one of those black-brown winter sneakers. Then I emptied my backpack of anything but the necessities and took my bike on an 11-mile long ride. Yeah, I guess some people would call me crazy. My lungs certainly thought I was, but I ignored the protests. Some minutes short of an hour later, I arrived at Central Park. When I locked my bike to the rack, I saw someone else had chosen the same method of transportation. I immediately felt a kinship with whoever had done so. I decided then and there I would do my best to find the fellow cyclist and at least exchange names, if not get on friendly terms with them. Adrenaline-fueled and surprisingly hopeful, I entered the building right after a blonde male. Seeing as most of the chairs were filled already, I was one of the last ones to arrive. Beside Dr. Slate, whom I’d Googled, I recognized no-one on sight.

There was a lady standing a bit apart from the other, seemingly yet undecided if or where she’d sit. She was well dressed, had a really nice coat, and the snack area was a bit crowded, so I approached her. The long and brown-haired female was maybe 2 or 3 inches shorter than me naturally, but her heels made us pretty much even. She was so preoccupied I wasn’t sure she’d even notice me. Even so, I introduced myself. “Hey there, I’m new here. Name’s Valeria. How about you?”

I didn’t feel like staring at her all the while, even though she was good-looking, so I checked out the others. Two other females were dressed rather nice, and I eyed both appreciatively. Hey, I know this ain’t a dating meet-up, but what else are you supposed to get from appearance only if not attractiveness? The only male worth noting based on a quick glance was the blonde, maybe. The rest were a ginger, a holiday enthusiast, and…a rapper-wannabe? I wasn’t sure what else to think what with all the jewelry. If it were me I’d probably manage to dip a chain in soup or smack someone accidentally, so I had to wonder how worth the style was for all the inconvenience it brought. I blinked my eyes to stop the rambling train of thoughts and politely refocused on the woman I’d chosen to stand next to.

I unwrapped my bear claw as I waited for the curly haired girl to respond, not my favorite pastry but my favorite from the ones on offer. Then again, despite how many people tended to assume I was constantly experiencing a sugar high, I didn’t eat many sweets to begin with. Thalia, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying her danish a fair bit more.

Even with the repeated opening of the door, I could feel the temperature of the room steadily rising with every warm body that joined the meeting.

“You’re dressed fancy. Just get in from a date or something?” I repeated, trying again to grab her attention.

“Hey, you came back! Lan, isn’t it?” the brown haired girl exclaimed, seeming surprised by my presence; “Oh, sorry, your question, didn’t mean to ignore that!” she replied stiffly.

“No worries, Thalia.” I waved off the awkwardness of it all, “And yeah. Considering coming to AA was the last thing Boxcar Joe asked me to do before he went home, I can’t just go to one and then never come back.”

“Yeah, you talked about him last week! Have you seen him since then?”

“Afraid not. His letter said he was heading back west to be with his family.”

“That’s another atypical leaving town. Seems to be a common phenomenon. There used to be several regulars, but now there’s only new people. Kind of strange.”

A woman next to them piped in next, cutting the conversation: “...’Atypical’? Don’t wanna sound like a total dumbass, but I don’t suppose you guys would know a bit more about what this group is supposed to be?”

“Oh, are you new? Wait...what meeting do you think you’re at?” Thalia inquired.

I let out a slight chuckle at the new girl’s confusion, “Probably alcoholics anonymous. Which… I think is part of why Erina called the group what she did.”

The new girl seemed to be annoyed by that sentence, her nostrils flaring visibly. “I’m sober, thank you very much. Or… ah, well, I was sober, anyway. Was half hoping it would be a regular AA, to be honest. But… yeah.” She tucked a curly strand of auburn hair behind her ear, expression sour.

“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that.” I absentmindedly rubbed the back of my head with one hand, smooshing the bear claw into my crimson hair, “I was just saying, that seems like the most obvious conclusion based on the acronym.”

At that, the girl’s previously on-guard expression softened a bit, and she nodded. Her prominently blue eyes wandered up to look at the newly found mess in my hair, obviously distracting her form the flow of the conversation.

“Hey! It’s okay, it’s always confusing for new people! So, what brings you here? Weird things happening in your life, unexplained oddities…” Thalia trailed off, her eyes locked onto me as I removed my hand from my head and grimaced.

“Take me for example. I don’t sleep. Ever. Since I was, like… six, I think” I offered, retrieving some napkins from my backpack to try and clean the crumbs and icing from the back of my head.

The redhead with glasses was visibly taken aback by that, and her eyes fell back from observing my hair. Then her expression shifted to something that resembled mild envy.
“Shit, I wish that were me. I mean, that is me. But you don’t look like you’ve been tired for a second of your life,” she observed. “Unlike me, that is.”

“So what about you, must be some reason you’re here?”

The woman hesitated. “Well, not nearly as glamorous as not needing sleep. I’m able to see into people’s minds, emotions and thoughts. Creepy, right?”

“Not that creepy… What am I thinking right now?” I asked curiously, shifting my full attention onto a particular squirrel with which I’d held a staring contest that morning.

The redhead frowned, then smirked lightly. “Not how it works, pal. I can’t exactly pick which thoughts I see. I can’t read specific thoughts, just snippets. My real ‘speciality’ is emotions,” she explained, then proceeded to close her eyes briefly. The woman’s eyes fluttered rapidly behind her closed lids, and then an intense frown disrupted her freckled face.
“Either you’re thinking about if you came into the right place, getting another one of those snacks, or a squirrel. Any of those? They get lost in the stream easily.”

“I think the more snacks thought was mine,” Thalia replied; unlike me, she seemed to be a bit uncomfortable about the presence of a mind reader in the room.

At that moment, the redhead’s expression turned bothered, as if she could sense the emotion in question. Which, of course, was kind of what her talent was about, as she had just explained. The woman blushed and shook her head, as if trying to clear her mind. “Stop it,” she muttered at herself while massaging her temples.

“It was the squirrel. I’m trying to train him so I can bring him to group for show and tell.” I admitted cheerfully, “I don’t know if we actually have show and tell, I just want to be able to say I trained a squirrel.” Once I was satisfied at how much bear claw I had managed to remove from her head, I balled up the napkins and tossed them into the nearest trash can, “oh, I should probably introduce myself. I’m Chunlan Zhu, but everybody just calls me Lan.”

“And I’m Thalia! Don’t mind the cocktail dress, it’s not usually the dress code! What’s your name?”

The red haired woman smiled and adjusted her glasses. “Cam, I guess. Or, you know, know. Camilla really, but no one calls me that. So just Cam,” she introduced herself before frowning yet again, looking a bit sheepish now:
“So uh… you… you can see the cat too, right? Not just me?”

“Yep. Definitely a cat. Pretty kitty, too.” I confirmed, sliding out of my chair, stopping a moment to place my backpack in it to save my seat before wandering over. Cats were great, and I’d be damned if I didn’t get a chance to pet it.

The meeting began as, usual, and I heard people begin to warm up to one another. A cosy room on a cold night, and a stomach full of buttery pastry seemed to be having a cathartic affect on everyone already. People continued introducing one another, and the girls I had been chatting to had begun to eye a lithe looking tom cat who had strolled in behind another attendee, casually - as if he owned the room. Which was hardly unusual for a cat, of course. I looked over at Erina who hadn't even blinked at the sight of the cat, who had rubbed against her shin before settling down into one of the chairs.

There was a new girl who had come who had taken the chair next to me. She was tall and athletic, with a black pixie cut. At first, she had seemed stand-offish, but she had confidently introduced herself as Valeria, and we talked a bit about our day, and the usual small talk involving weather and shitty New York drivers.

After waiting patiently, Erina joined our circle and gave us her reserved smile before ruffling the notebook that was in her hands, finding what looked like a blank page. She then began to speak. She spoke very deliberately, and rarely minced words. She didn't seem like a natural speaker, but she had this almost hypnotic charisma that made you ignore the brief pauses.

"Hello everyone! Welcome to Atypicals Anonymous! There are so many new faces here," she looked around at everyone, as if taking a mental inventory. "As you know, this is a support group for the strange and unusual, and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you. I am Dr. Erina Slate, though you are all welcome to call me Erina. I started this group to help unite people like us, and form a community. Many of you have abilities that are challenging, difficult to control or understand, and are affecting your ability to live a normal life. It's our goal to help you learn more about yourself, how to control your powers, and how to live up to your fullest potential."

She paused, and brushed her short cropped hair out of her eyes before continuing. She then lowered her voice. "Now, I've noticed some of you have been quiet. And I understand your trepidation. Some of you have never talked about your abilities before. But, I want you to learn how to become comfortable expressing yourself with others, especially in a controlled environment. So, I have developed a new introductory exercise!"

Erina walked across the room, and turned off the light. The entire room was cast in shadow, and only the soft glow of distant street lights and the light of the bright half moon reflecting off the clouds illuminated the room.

Her voice lowered, she rejoined the circle. "Please close your eyes, and imagine yourself deep underground, in a cave that is eerily silent, except for the occasional sound of water dripping from stalactites hundreds of feet above you."

I looked around me, interested in seeing if others were participating. I noted a few reluctant eyebrow raises, especially from Valeria, and a somewhat incredulous look from a large man with a beard. However, there were a few who settled right into the exercise - a young and lanky asian man, as well as an unkempt looking ginger fellow seemed right at home closing their eyes and settling into their chairs. Lan seemed like she had too much energy to fully relax in her seat, but the other girl, Cam, seemed relieved at a break from all of the nervous tension. I was feeling a bit sleepy from my high sugar and carb intake, and settling into Erina's calming, almost hypnotic voice, felt comfortable. I could picture myself in the belly of a dark, damp and desolate cave. One that was so far underground, that one could almost feel the weight of the earth pressing in. And it was true, the sound of water droplets pooling in eroded rock echoed around me.

"The surroundings are almost entirely black, but the occasional blue glow from bioluminescent glow worms paints the ceiling in clusters like stars. The light they emanate seems to grow and fade in rhythm, and the whole room feel likes it's breathing," she continued. Her voice was so relaxing, and I felt myself almost drift off, until I felt my chair slip away, and I began to fall. I gave a sharp shriek and felt myself hit the ground.

But, instead of hitting the ground of the community center, I found myself hitting the freezing cold stone of the cave that Erina had just described. There was no sign of the community center's four walls, and the chair I had fallen from had disappeared. I scrambled to my feet, not believing where I was. I could hardly see a couple feet ahead of me, but I started stumbling forward towards a patch of light that was, as described, being produced by pale blue glow worms that were attached to the side of the cave walls.

My forehead smacked into something soft...like a shirt...someone's shirt.

"Hey!" the person shouted, sounding surprised, and also a bit frightened - like myself.

And then I realized what had happened. Somehow, Erina had mentally transported us to the cave she had been describing. I had heard of Atypicals being able to create mental illusions, for themselves and others. It was something like lucid dreaming. But I had no idea how Erina was doing it, or if she was doing it. But if not her, then who?

But, as if in an answer to my question, Erina's voice drifted through the cave. It was soft and whispery, like an echo or a sigh. "You are in a mental simulation. You must find your way out using any means at your disposal. There are ways that your abilities can both help and hurt your progress. Look for clues and help each other. Good luck."

When her voice faded, I finally felt truly afraid. The warmth of the room had finally worn off and I felt a numbing cold encroaching on my extremities. Then, I tried speaking.

"Is everyone okay?" My voice came out trembling, and unsure. I had no idea what lengths Erina would go through to finish this "mental simulation," but knowing her intensity and eccentricity, I was sure she wouldn't allow us to leave until we had found a way out.

Suddenly, I heard something that made my heart skip a beat, and I jumped in alarm. It was a sound in the far distance, perhaps in a different chamber of the cave. It was both a rumbling and a growl, and what sounded like large claws being dragged across stoney ground. And it was coming closer.

I hadn’t actually managed to pet the cat yet when Erina called the meeting to order, and I returned to my seat with a disappointed sigh; maybe after the meeting ended. Once again cross-legged in my chair, backpack in my lap, I sat in relative silence through the introductory section. When she shut off the lights and began an odd monologue, I simply sat, focused and listened. Tried to, at least. I always got a bit twitchy when I tried to sit still.

"Please close your eyes, and imagine yourself deep underground, in a cave that is eerily silent, except for the occasional sound of water dripping from stalactites hundreds of feet above you."

She instructed. Easy enough, an overactive imagination was vital to your sanity when you’ve got a power like mine. I felt an odd drifting sensation as I allowed myself to begin visualization of the described scene.

"The surroundings are almost entirely black, but the occasional blue glow from bioluminescent glow worms paints the ceiling in clusters like stars. The light they emanate seems to grow and fade in rhythm, and the whole room feel likes it's breathing,"

There was that drifting again; it was familiar, and yet distant. Like something I had felt before but a very very long time ago. And then, falling; my chair was gone. What the hell? I felt a pop -as if I was breaching the surface of some kind of bubble- and an unfamiliar feeling overtook me.


It struck me as I stood up and went to check my shirt hadn’t torn in the fall; this was a dream, but… not a dream. I haven’t slept in about 15 years, not counting a couple hours for an appendectomy in middle school since that’s closer to an induced coma. The point is, I haven’t had a dream for almost two thirds of my life. How I was doing it now was beyond me.

"You are in a mental simulation. You must find your way out using any means at your disposal. There are ways that your abilities can both help and hurt your progress. Look for clues and help each other. Good luck."

Well, that explained it. Crazy psychic hypnosis. For normal people this was probably weird but not that alien. For me it was honestly more on the frightening end of things. How was I supposed to escape from a fake dream when I’ve barely even had normal ones?

”Hello?” I shouted, wishing for a moment I had been gifted with echolocation rather than weaponized insomnia; be able to see and not so far out of my element. Just… needed to find someone real, try to center myself and keep calm. I’d been in way scarier situations than this, right?

It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, and I was able to see a spot in the cave which was dimly lit by the pale blue light of glow worms. I saw a few other figures gathering there, most likely the other AA members.

"Is everyone okay?" came a familiar voice.

“Thalia? Is that you?” I asked; suddenly realizing just how cold the cave was. Stupid magic dream, why couldn’t I bring my jacket? Or at LEAST my backpack? No Lan, calm. This isn’t real, you’re not cold, it’s just your imagination acting up. Against your will.

I slapped myself on the cheeks a few times in an attempt to focus and shut down the internal monologue, wrapping my arms across my chest to try and stay warm as I attempted to make my way closer to the others. That’s when I heard it, a rumbling growl. It reminded me, vaguely, of the first time I’d gotten caught sneaking into a construction yard. The security guard had a big dog of some kind with him and it scared the hell out of me back then too. ”I’m not sure about the rest of you, but I’d rather get out of here BEFORE we find out what that noise is.” I said shakily, feeling my nerves creeping up on me.

Yeah, this was gonna be all kinds of fun.

The cat seemed less than interested in the handful of milk Heph placed before it like some Egyptian depiction of servitude. He'd seen them during some of his unveilings , museums in need of new sculptures and fountains willing to pay half up font. "I guess that answers my question at least." Heph scoffed as he found a chair far from the others, all of whom had ignored him thus far. Pricks.

"Please close your eyes, and imagine yourself deep underground, in a cave that is eerily silent, except for the occasional sound of water dripping from stalactites hundreds of feet above you."

Dope, ASMR. It was a strange request but nonetheless Heph took the bait You are getting very sleepy. When I snap my fing-YO WHAT THE-

THUMP

Heph rubbed his backside as he rose to his feet. He peered hard through the darkness, several shapes rising around him. "Yo, what the hell was that?" As if on cue the dulcet tones whispered through the cave.

"You are in a mental simulation. You must find your way out using any means at your disposal. There are ways that your abilities can both help and hurt your progress. Look for clues and help each other. Good luck."

Yeah, these assholes couldn't handle a yes or no question, like I'm gonna trust them to do anything. What started as a minor annoyance blossomed into full regret as growling echoed through the cavern. "This just isn't my day." Heph decided if he made it through this shit it would definitely be his last session.

”I don't know what you fuckers are thinking but somebody needs to find me some ore, we're gonna need something sharp before that thing gets here." Heph didn't wait for a reply as he began scouring the cave walls for any semblance of metal.

---

Location: Cave simulation
State of mind: Scattered
Days sober: Still 0

---

It wasn't long before the actual meeting began. I felt a bit uncomfortable and nervous. A chanrged silence radiated in the room, making my head ache. Then the woman that had earlier introduced herself as Erina spoke up.
"Hello everyone! Welcome to Atypicals Anonymous! There are so many new faces here," she observed calmly. There was something unsettling about her, but for some reason it didn't make me feel on edge. Only calm. I suppose it could've been the weird pauses she kept having in her speech, but oddly enough, they made me feel even more relaxed.
"As you know, this is a support group for the strange and unusual, and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you. I am Dr. Erina Slate, though you are all welcome to call me Erina. I started this group to help unite people like us, and form a community. Many of you have abilities that are challenging, difficult to control or understand, and are affecting your ability to live a normal life. It's our goal to help you learn more about yourself, how to control your powers, and how to live up to your fullest potential."
I listened intently. So at this point there was no doubt left that this really wasn't your typical AA meeting. This was something else. I glanced around me; Lan seemed accustomed to this, and so did Thalia. Both of them were old-timers, so it was a given.
"Now, I've noticed some of you have been quiet. And I understand your trepidation. Some of you have never talked about your abilities before. But, I want you to learn how to become comfortable expressing yourself with others, especially in a controlled environment. So, I have developed a new introductory exercise!"

Erina switched the lights off. I felt a bang of panic, since I had never been a fan of the dark. For obvious reasons. To my relief, the room still had a dim light source. I could see everyone's faces, and it provided me even some level of comfort. The others in the room looked about as prepared for what came next as I was. Me, for one, felt the comfort I had felt just moments ago thrown out the window.
"Please close your eyes, and imagine yourself deep underground, in a cave that is eerily silent, except for the occasional sound of water dripping from stalactites hundreds of feet above you."
Everyone obliged after the initial surprise everyone must've felt at the request. I was the only one left in my place, eyes open and afraid. I didn't want to close my eyes. I... I couldn't.
My eyes met with Erina's calm ones across the room. She didn't address the panic she must've seen in my eyes, she only nodded encouragingly. I swallowed.
Glancing around the blissfully quiet, dim room one last time, I obliged.

WOOOOOOOSH.

An onslaught of feelings washed over me like a blanket that wanted to suffocate me. I gasped audibly, feeling a shiver travel down my spine. Unsure. Calm. Afraid. Confused. Sleepy...
'Dope, ASMR.'
'What's Erina planning?'
'This is weird...'
'Her voice is oddly relaxing...'
I felt it all, and none of it, all at once. My head hurt. I grasped the sides of my head, shaking but too determined to open my eyes. I felt so violated, and like I was the one violating everyone else's privacy at the same time. I hated every second of it.
I tried to picture a cave, but the thoughts and feelings that danced on the canvas of my closed eyelids were too bright, too loud. I could see all the people around me, sitting in a circle in the room we were in, white shadowy figures whose minds grew foggier and foggier as the moment passed on.
'You can do this, Camilla...' That thought was calming yet stern. It came from outside, it came from someone in the room. Was it Erina? Who had it been? Whoever it was, that someone believed in me. I felt an emotion of calmness wrap me in itself like a supporting, warm blanket. I took a shaky breath, letting the comforting emotion consume me. I tried focusing on the mental image of a cave with only water drops breaking the tranquil silence.

The next thing I knew, I was falling.

---

A shriek escaped my lips. My head was spinning. I prepared myself for the pain of the landing, but it never came. I simply found myself sitting on something wet, cold and bumpy. As I stood up on shaky legs, I could feel the cool air around me. I tried to pull the sleeves of my shirt down, only to remember I hadn't worn anything particularly warm today. I heard shuffling and quiet grunts.

Then, something bumped into my back, startling me.
"Hey!" I shrieked in surprise, but my voice wavered with fear. I spun around to see someone - Thalia? - in the dim light produced by some glowy worms on the cave walls.
Wait. We were in a cave. How the hell had we ended up here? Just a moment ago we had been in the meeting room, and... Wait, was this a nightmare? Had I fallen asleep? No, that was impossible.
As if on cue, Erina's voice echoed in the chambers: "You are in a mental simulation. You must find your way out using any means at your disposal. There are ways that your abilities can both help and hurt your progress. Look for clues and help each other. Good luck."
'Yeah, these assholes couldn't handle a yes or no question, like I'm gonna trust them to do anything,' a foreign thought snuck into my mind.
I felt a sense of dread settle in the pit of my stomach. Great, just great. We were... hypnotized, somehow, and now we had to find our way out. There were glowing maggots on the walls and I fucking hated worms. And I knew no one here, well, no one except Thalia and Lan...
"Is everyone okay?" Thalia asked next to me. I felt like grabbing her arm in support. I was damn near a panic attack. It was so dark I couldn't be sure if my eyes were closed or not, which resulted in a weird state between real world and eyes-closed world: I could see Thalia and other figures, but also feel my fear and confusion multiplied while also seeing white shadows lurk in the corner of my eyes.
Next I could hear someone responding, asking Thalia if it was her. Was that Lan? There was a growl somewhere. The hairs on my neck stood up.
"Lan?" I asked in an unsure manner. I felt like my head was going to explode if I didn't get away from here soon.

”I don't know what you fuckers are thinking but somebody needs to find me some ore, we're gonna need something sharp before that thing gets here," a man's voice growled at the same time from somewhere further away. I heard steps echoing, moving around. Trying to get my scattered mind back in one piece, I nodded.
"...Yeah. I wish I didn't know what you were thinking," I shot back, trying to get back my snark, "but you're right. I'd rather not be here when that... thing gets here."

Joseph was beginning to get kind of bored at this point, as nobody seemed to be interested in trying to get him out, meaning he couldn't start his rant. He did find himself as the target of a few interesting reactions though, so it wasn't all bad. Highlights included the part where one of the women present looked at him like he was some kind of lovecraftian abomination, which to be fair, there was always the slight possibility that he actually was without realising it...

Then there was the part where... apparently Jason Momoa walked up to him, asking why nobody had offered him milk and spouting some crap about how black cats where unlucky. He did consider using that to jump into the rant, but the guy was holding milk cupped in his hands right in front of his face, and he was worried that doing anything to startle the guy might result in him jumping, which in turn could easily leave him completely drenched in the stuff.

Instead, he decided to just give the guy an 'are you serious?' look, because it looked like the guy really expected him to drink the milk directly out of his hands! At least put it in a bowl or something!

Before he could think too much on it however, his attention was caught by Rina officially starting the meeting, and he decided to just sit get comfortable and listen. It didn't take long for him to realise what she was doing, having been through a fair few of her simulations back in the good old days. For a moment, he considered ignoring the prompts and remaining outside the illusion, giving him a chance to speak with Rina one on one. However, he decided before too long to just go along with it. After all, he could always speak to her afterwards, and a few of these people didn't seem like the kind to take an adventure like this too well.

In all honestly, it actually felt more relaxing than anything else, as he felt the chair drop out from beneath him, dropping him on the cave floor. Of course, he landed easily on his feet, because cat, and then spent a few moments watching and chuckling as the others lost their shit. Of particular interest was the guy who'd tried to make him drink the milk out of his hands, who immediately began to swear and ask for ore.

Well, what the hell... If there was ever a time for a badass reveal, it was probably here.

"Hey Aquaman, you mind calming down a little?" He said, not quite able to keep the snark from his voice as he wandered over to stand in the direction of the growling. "What're you even panicking about, it's probably just some stupid monster... Or a random asshole. Either way, nothing we can't handle, assuming anyone here has actual decent powers..."

As he looked over the group once more, his eyes widened slightly, noticing something he'd missed before.

"Wait, Thali?" He asked, before trying to grin. Of course, it isn't all that easy to grin with a cats face, so it really came off looking more like a smirk than anything. "Jeez, I didn't see you before, I just assumed you died too! Nice to see you still up and kicking, even if you probably aren't gonna be contributing much to this fight. Like, at all..."

"Hey Aquaman, you mind calming down a little?" The cat fuckin' talks. Of course it talks. And here he was offering up praise and milk to a skinwalker. "Fuckin' Egypt, man." Heph pulled himself from his task and turned toward the kitty bastard making jokes at a time like this. He was jealous. He maintained an apathetic air most days but dammit if Dad's great power great responsibility bullshit didn't creep in every time. He recalled the last time it nearly got him killed, melting a fuckin' pistol at a 7-11. Now here he was panhandling for shivs like a prison prospector while some feline fuck questions his fashion. "Yo how 'bout you shapeshift into somethin' besides an asshole and go kick that thing's ass?"

"...Yeah. I wish I didn't know what you were thinking..." A skinwalker and a mind reader. Great. Heph's jealously turned into impotence at his own power's limited function. Hopefully it'd be enough to keep him alive in this weird dream hell.

"At least we have common ground, I also wish you couldn't tell what I was thinking. How does it work, can you like echolocate and see if whatever our dinner guest is is sentient? How many there are at least? I only found enough for two ice picks." The ore yielded as the warmth of Heph's hands on the rock reduced the metal within to putty. "They're crude so if you only get one good shot break them off in its hide." Heph repeated his 7-11 fuckery as he slid the many bangles he wore down his forearms into makeshift bracers and solidified his necklaces into a single cohesive chest piece. "I'll get it's attention and we'll need a flanker. The rest of you can throw whatever rocks are lying around. If there's anyone in here with offensive powers you might try dropping the stalactites on the damn thing."

Heph caught himself, his tone turning from authoritative to sheepish. Who was he to boss these people around, they probably had fire breath or super speed or anything. Besides, he hated being in charge it was just a gut reaction to being threatened by fucking cave beasts.

"Or don't, I'm not a cop."

"Oh my god, Joseph?" I said, startled. "You're a cat? That's where you've been this entire time?" I scrutinized the black cat who was licking his paw calmly. Joseph had been going to these meetings longer than I had, and if he managed to look relaxed, while also being a cat, it was possible he had encountered one of Erina's "mental simulations" before, though I hadn't.

"And please, you're one to talk about contributing to a fight. What are you going to do? Cuddle the cave monsters to death? Suffocate them with your fluff?" I responded. I was alarmed at those around me picking up arms. Knowing Erina and her odd way of thinking, this exercise likely wasn't a simple test of offensive ability. At other meetings, she liked posing strange questions or crazy hypothetical scenarios, in order to get us to think outside the box. If this was anything like her other exercises, there was more than one way to skin this cat...(No offense to Joseph).

The creature in the distance let out another growl, and I could hear what sounded like a large nose inhaling the sulfurous cave air into giant lungs. We needed to find a way out of this chamber, but it would be impossible to see anything with the cave this dark. But we didn't have enough time...whatever was roaming around sounded threatening, and it also seemed to have no trouble either navigating the cave, or locating us. It most likely had incredible hearing, an acute sense of smell, the ability to see in the dark...or some terrifying combination of all three. We needed more time - then I almost smacked myself on the forehead.

"Guys, I need to focus. We don't have enough time to run around aimlessly, we'll be sitting ducks when this creature makes it to our chamber. I'm going to try to find a way out, but I need to calm down..."

Erina and I had worked hard on controlling my ability, to the point where certain breathing exercises could help me focus on freezing time. But there was a bit of a warming-up period, and the pressure of imminent disaster was not the most ideal environment to find my zen.

"Um, Joseph..." I ventured, "Can I pet you...cats always help calm me down, and I figured maybe..."

The cat narrowed his eyes at me.

"Please?"

Joseph rolled his eyes and muttered something about how now I needed his help. But he obliged, and I started rubbing his ear and trying to find that place in my mind where I needed to go, somewhat like a word that was on the tip of my tongue that I needed to identify, for the world to freeze around me.

And suddenly, it happened, and I found myself in the deafening silence of a still and timeless world.

Wasting no time, I rose to my feet. The world flickered around me, like a old television that was losing signal, but it re-materialized slowly, and I began searching for a way out. The others were standing about the chamber like statues. The bearded man, Heph I think, seemed to have located a vein of dark ore in the far wall. Angie and Valeria seemed to have been in the middle of discussing something. Angie seemed like she was deep in thought. I wondered if Cam was able to pick up anything from the creature we were hearing nearby...it was likely - maybe her abilities worked on non-humans.

I continued walking around, feeling the exact dimensions of the cave walls as I did so. I noted several hazardous looking stalagmites poking up from the bottom, but as I followed the wall, never taking my hand from it, I walked in what seemed like a wide circle, ending up next to Joseph after walking maybe 150 feet. The area we were in was a rotunda, of sorts. Then, I ventured towards the middle. My leg passed through something bulky. It couldn't have been anything that any of us had taken with us, as we didn't seem to have brought anything into the mental simulation but the clothes on our back. At closer inspection, it was a stack of crates, neatly piled in the center of the room. There was a strange shape on top, and looking closer, it was a teddy bear. Strange. I couldn't open the crates or inspect the bear, as nothing I touched when time was stopped could be affected by me.

But I noted the pile's location and continued forward. I balked suddenly when I felt the rush of cool water touch my ankle. Looking down, I realized I had ventured into a small pool of water...no...actually it was stream. Running water! It had to be running somewhere. I remembered back to when I was a little girl, and had been sitting with my brother as we read Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. The expedition had found itself in a similar situation, lost in the labyrinthine tunnels deep underground. They had found their way out by following running water.

I followed the motionless stream and it got wider, until it met the side of one of the cave's walls. I had missed it on my first go around, but upon closer inspection, there was a narrow crack in the otherwise seamless stone. It widened towards the bottom, but it was barely large enough for me to stick my hand through. However, it seemed like the only lead. We had to find our way out, and it looked like there was no other way than this tiny sliver of hope. But, even if we did manage to find a way to break through the wall, would we find ourselves in a chamber with a monster who seemed to have no trouble navigating in the darkness? And was there anything useful information or tools to be gleaned from the objects in the middle of the room? I didn't know, but I hoped the others would have ideas.

I re-focused on animating time, and after holding myself still and imagining the feelings and the sounds of the cave, I found myself sitting right where I had been before stopping time. I took a deep breath and stood up.

"Guys...there's a way out, and maybe some tools or clues or something towards the center of this chamber. But we need to work fast!"