[IC] Those Closest

[Midna-Phobia]

It was dark, at least outside. The night was moonless and dark, heavy clouds covered the stars and wind howled outside her room, causing the trees to tap on the window. Kaya didn’t even notice. Inside her room she had a beside tale lamp on, giving the room a soft yellow light as she lay on her bed, reading. Perhaps she poured too much of her time into reading, some certainly thought so. But so much of her power came from theory, from knowledge and she wouldn’t be nearly as good as she was now without it. Not that many people realised or acknowledged her as being all that powerful, since she mostly refused to use her powers unless she wanted to and never against others even though her parents had told her it was alright to use them in self defence. It was just a personal principal. So absorbed in her book she didn’t realise how late she’d stayed up until the sun began peeking through her window. Getting up the girl yawned tiredly and closed the blinds and sank into bed, turning the light off and quickly falling asleep. It wasn’t an overly restful sleep, however as her alarm woke her up a few hours later. Confused Kaya sat up, rubbing her eyes and yawning again and looked at the clock. She didn’t remember setting an alarm until she realised what day it was. The last day of vacation had been yesterday. Her last year of school had completely snuck up on her. Climbing reluctantly out of bed the girl walked back over to her curtains and opened them, taking out the white board from beside her windowsill she wrote a quick ‘good morning’ and left it leant against the window before heading off to have a shower. Bryant occupied the room across from hers in the house next door and they’d taken to communicating via writing messages and flashing them through the windows a long time ago. She couldn’t remember exactly, it had been a long time ago though she was sure. The water did little to wake her up further and Grace returned to her room, dressed and headed downstairs. The house was quiet, she guessed her mother had already left for work and it made her realise she probably could have set her alarm a little earlier. She hadn't given herself much time to get ready at all. Toast to go it was. Hauling her bag, which was probably much too heavy, over her shoulder Kaya quickly hurried out of the house, making sure to lock the door behind her she paused for a moment, looking over to the house next to her she frowned for a moment, wondering where Bryant was. They usually walked to school together… did he get sick of waiting for her and go ahead?

[Kaore]

Bryant, unlike Kaya, was still completely asleep having also forgottent that yesterday was the last day of vacation... actually it was more like he thought he was still in the middle of his vacation. Not that showing up to school late on the first day would bother him but it would bother Kaya... who would then nag him until he apologised. His room was filled with empty soda bottles and pizza boxes, a t.v. with various game consoles was against one wall while a writing desk with a pyramid of even more soda cans atop it. If Kaya came up to visit today like she would every other week she'd nag him some more... just like his mother but unlike his mother he listened to Kaya more often then he did his mother. Something in his dreams caused him to snap to conciousness and send him tumbling out of bed onto the floor in a daze just as his mother came in. His mother was a beautiful woman with mid-back length red hair, alabaster skin, and green eyes. She was currently dressed in a red sundress and had an annoyed look on her face. "BRYANT! WAKE UP AND GET READY FOR SCHOOL!" She shouted at him. This snapped Bryant into full awareness as he quickly grabbed some clothes and dashed to the bathroom. Five minutes later he was dashing downstairs and grabbed muffin his mother left on the counter for him before running out the door as quickly as he could... and running right into Kaya.

[Midna-Phobia]

Standing around the front of her house for a few minutes as she ate her toast Kaya wondered what to do. If she didn’t hurry she’d be late but she didn’t want to leave Bryant behind if he had waited for her. She finally decided that she could always just go knock and see if he was still at home. If not then she could leave without feeling guilty, though maybe a bit annoyed he hadn't waited for her. Walking up to the house she went to knock on the door when it burst open and the boy came crashing into her, sending them both sprawling onto the ground. “What… Bryant?! Get off me! You’re heavy!” Kaya complained as she pushed at him, squirming out from underneath the boy. Standing up she dusted herself off and retrieved her bag and looked down at him with a soft expression. “Did you forget we had school today too?”The girl said with a small laugh before yawning. “I stayed up all night reading.” She managed to get out. “Come on, we can probably make last bus if we hurry.” She said as she turned and began walking at a fast pace. The school itself wasn’t too far from their houses, but far enough that at this time they’d probably be late. Despite herself Kaya could already feel herself loosing focus, her eyes felt heavy and her body was lethargic, keen for more sleep. She’d probably have to try and get a power nap in during home room. “You know I was beginning to worry you’d gone to school on your own.” Kaya said as they walked. It was nice to know some things never changed. “I seriously think one of us need to get their licence.” Up ahead was the bus stop and the bus was driving down the street towards them, meaning they’d made it just in time.

[Kaore]

"I thought we still had a few more days off." He told her irritably "And the only reason I'ld go to school without you was if you were sick." The two of them got on the bus and found an empty seat they could share before sitting down and scooting over to the window. He didn't want to go to school today, he wanted to sleep or play videogames, or watch television. Instead he had to spend hours listening to somebody drone on about stupid things. The only good thing about going was he got to spend time with Kaya... though he pretty much already spent most of his time with her anyway. She was his best friend and they had grown up together, they were nearly inseperable despite how different they were from eachother. "I think your right about the license but neither of us have cars." He told her "And I doubt either of our parents will buy one for us. I might have enough for a motorcycle but I doubt you would want to ride on it to school with me everyday." Truth be told Bryant wouldn't mind at all. He's had a crush on Kaya since middle school but had been afraid to tell her about it and possibly ruin their friendship... it was one of the few things he was actually afraid of.

[Midna-Phobia]

Kaya smiled at the statement that he’d only go without her was if she were sick, and tuned to look away from him, blushing slightly. As they arrived at the bus stop she followed him on, sitting beside him as it took off towards school. “I may be able to guilt one out of dad because he’s away so much and has missed so many birthdays… but I don’t think I’d be able to go through with it.” Kaya was pretty sure she couldn’t guilt anyone into doing anything without feeling bad. “As for the bike… I think it’s more an issue of my mum… she’d never let me get on one of those things when school was so close. ‘too dangerous’.” After her accident her mother and father had moved out here to the suburbs and although it doesn’t drastically affect her life Kaya’s mother had always been just that little bit over protective, not wanting her to do things that were unnecessarily risky. In a way she understood it, but it also made her wonder how she’d handle it when she moved out. The bus pulled up to the school not too long after that and the pair disembarked together and Kaya smiled despite herself. “I know it’s not really your thing, but I’m glad to be back.” Kaya said as she made her way inside. “It’s one of the only places we get to use our powers openly.” She shrugged slightly not that she really used her powers all that much; it was still nice to know she didn’t have to hide it. Studying wasn’t overly difficult for her either and she found herself able to remember things she read easily, though the circles and intricate details and strange language of alchemy were always the easiest to memorise. “Now all I need is for alchemy to be a subject on its own and I’d be fine. But I guess power practical is the closest I’m gonna get again this year.”

[Kaore]

While Bryant didn't have anyproblem with the schoolwork he was often assigned he had a very short attention span and grew bored quite easily. When he did do his work he would generally get A's or B's but his average grade in class were C's... except for power practical. There he either got straight A's or detention from overdoing it and damaging something unintentionally... it wasn't his fault that his powers were difficult to control. His electrokinesis could simultaneously be easy to control and highly erratic. He still needed to focus to do the complicated things his teacher wanted him to do while all he wanted was to throw bolts of lightning at the targets. He could of course do other things with it but he did see any point in trapping people with lightning cuffs when he could just beat them into unconciousness. "Your mom worries way to much. She needs to chill and let you learn from your mistakes instead of trying to keep you from making them at all." He said dully "My parents made sure to supervise me if I was going to do something stupid. Sure I got hurt but I learned valuable lesons as a result... like making sure to secure my bottle rocket launchpad so they don't fall over when they launch."

[Midna-Phobia]

Kaya giggled lightly at the story. “I remember watching that.” She said, a small smile now plastered over her face. “I suppose… getting to make mistakes helps you learn and stuff and I wish I had been given more chance in life to make mistakes in learn. But alchemy is a bit different… my father always drilled it into me that you can’t make mistakes with it. Everything has to be exact or you risk a Rebound…” She shuddered slightly. Kaya had only heard of the consequences of Rebounds, never experienced one herself but from what she’d heard it wasn’t something you wanted to experience anyway. Since the alchemical forces being manipulated are not human in origin, but of the world as a whole, the consequences for attempting to bypass the Law of Equivalent Exchange in transmutation are not merely failure and cessation. When too much is attempted out of too little, what occurs is called a Rebound, in which the alchemical forces that are thrown out of balance on either side of the equation fluctuate wildly of their own accord in order to stabilize themselves - taking or giving more than was intended in often unpredictable and catastrophic ways such as accidental mutation, serious injury or death. Suddenly the bell rung, jarring her out of her thoughts and she looked up at Bryant with a smile. “I guess I’ll see you at much hu?” She said, knowing that they did have a few classes together later in the day, but morning classes were more theoretical, meaning they were separated. Power theory, practical and gym she’d managed to convince the school to put them in the same class. Usually you were separated based on your type of power and Kaya had managed to convince the principal that since her powers primarily revolved around elements that she belonged in the elemental group with Bryant.

[Kaore]

"Yeah I'll see you at lunch." Bryant said sadly before heading off to his own class. Of all the classes that he had, the one he was going to now was his least favorite... math. He hated math, it made his head hurt, he kept overthinking the problems and making them more complicated resulting in him getting them wrong. Oddly eough it was only in the math class itself he was having trouble with. When he needed to use math in a science class he could do it with no problem and generally got them right. It was just math as math he sucked at. Sitting down in his desk he prepared himself for another day of mind numbing boredom before the interesting classes began in the afternoon, the ones he'd have with Kaya. He still had no idea how she had convinced the staff that she should be in the same course as he was. Her Alchemy was incredible versatile and potentially quite powerful but she didn't like using her powers very much. His power on the other hand was rather simple in comparison and could be more destructive than hers... at least in his opinion.

[Midna-Phobia]

Kaya also had math first up, though she was in a different class than Bryant. Like most subjects she didn’t hate it, because she found it easy anything that mostly required remembering and reciting facts. It was the more practical subjects she struggled at. She was pretty sure she was going to fail gym again and was glad she’d been able to take more theoretical subjects as electives this year instead of being stuck in art or dance or worse… home ec. Kaya was not proud to admit she’d set a small portion of the building on fire last year. She’d fixed it right up with a bit of alchemy… but they’d been more than happy to put her in a different class after that incident. The morning classes past quickly for her at least and she was contently making her way to the cafeteria when a couple of other students began walking next to her. One boy and one girl whom made her groan internally. “Back for another year Grant?” The girl asked with a smile. Kaya smiled at them and was about to say something when the boy suddenly opened a locker next to her and pushed her inside, closing it behind her. “Oh come on guys really? I thought we were past all this!” She said, crossing her arms. “You’re not going to have lockers to shove people into forever!” She called as they walked off laughing. Pouting slightly Kara pulled a sharpie out of her pocket and quickly drew a transmutation circle on the inside of the locker filling it out accordingly and placing her hands on the metal. Sparks few around her and a blue light illuminated the inside of the locker and the door fell away. It was something shed quickly learnt when those two had started pushing her inside lockers.

[Kaore]

Luckily for Bryant morning classes went by relatively quickly... they still seemed to take forever but it was better than usual. He was very hungry by that point and wondered what they were going to serve for lunch today. Hopefully it was burgers or something instead of meatloaf... he hated meatloaf. He was quite excited with his electives this year as he was finally able to take some of the more dangerous classes like some of the advanced combat classes where they got to fight training robots that had most of their safeties disabled. Sure it was dangerous but for people with powers like him and Kaya there were some expectations as to what they would do in the future. He himself was pretty sure he wanted to be a hero. His Mother and father had tried to convince him to follow in their footsteps but he wasn't capable of doing the things they had done in their attempts to save the world. He loved them with all his heart despite what they had done in the past and would never report them to the authorities... so long as they stayed retired. As he made his way down the hallway he saw something that made his blood boil. Kaya was pushed inside a locker and locked in. He knew she could get out by herself but he hated people that enjoyed hurting or humiliating others for their own personal amusement. Lightning coursed up and down his arms as he raised his left hand. The two laughing bullies hadn't noticed the other students had moved away from them as Bryant charged up a low level attack. Bryant was odd in that he named his attacks. He felt they helped him not only put more power into them but also control them better. Strangely enough it usually worked. "Electromagnetic Murder!" He shouted as he swung his arm down sending a wave of lightning at the two bullies. It wouldn't be enough to hurt them seriously, just cause some pain and scorch their clothes.

[Midna-Phobia]

Kaya was about to step out of the locker when she heard Bryant shout and quickly stepped back, watching as bolts of electricity coursed past her and she heard the other two cry out in pain. Stepping out she looked to them and then back to her friend before she hopped out of the locker and walked back towards him, smiling a little. “Thanks.” She said softly, deciding to walk beside him for safety in case those two decided to retaliate. It wasn’t often, but every now and then when the four of them had issues it would result in a full out fight, usually between Bryant and Cody. “I still don’t think you should do that though. You’re gonna get detention again if someone catches you using your powers in the halls against other students. That and it doesn’t seem to really bother them. They haven’t stopped after three years.” She was also worried that one day he may seriously hurt someone, be it them or himself. “But thanks all the same.” They made their way into the cafeteria without any further incidents; luckily Cody and Ashley didn’t seem in the mood for a proper fight. It was early days, they were testing the water she supposed. Kaya didn’t look forward to the day all four of them were put on separate sides during gym when powers were allowed to be used. She knew she’d be useless to Bryant in a fight. As they lined up for lunch though all thoughts of the other two disappeared from her mind. “Oh look! Pudding!” The girl explained happily as they got into line. Kaya couldn’t help it. Despite her disciplined and structured approach to life she had the biggest weakness for sweet things. Anyone who knew her well knew she’d even drop her alchemy studying for desert.

[Kaore]

One of the ony things about Kaya that Bryant did not understand was why she didn't like using her powers. She was far to pacifistic and it was one of the reasons he got so angry when somebody picked on her. He had hoped that the bullies know as Cody and Ashley had learned their lessons over the years like most of the others but they were either to stupid, or to arrogant to stop their torment of her. Seeing Kaya become excited upon seeing the pudding brought a small smile to his face. She was quite cute when she was around sweets, much different from her usual persona and it was one of the things he liked about her. Unfortunately for him the lunch for today was meatloaf and a salad... meaning he'd be having an unsatisfactory meal of lettuce. "I hate meatloaf." Bryant groaned as they sat down "Its nasty and the texture is strange." Knowing Kaya she probably wouldn't care and just eat... after eating her pudding first. At least he had some entertaining classes after lunch. "How has your day been so far?" He asked as he started eating.

[Midna-Phobia]

Kaya smiled and laughed softly at Bryant’s distaste for the school lunches. “Yeah... sorry I haven’t figured out how to transmute food yet. There’s not a lot of research on it strangely enough. So I’ve had to go back to scratch and start over. Though I haven’t really managed to get past changing it back into its original ingredients.” And even that had taken her a good year or two. Once she got into the line Kaya quickly collected her food and made her way to a table. “Could you just imagine if I wasn’t bound by equivalent exchange?” The girl mused as they sat down. “Think of all the puddings I could make!” She giggled softly, bypassing the main meal in favour for desert. “It hasn’t been too bad. I think I’d be enjoying it more if I weren’t so tired.” She yawned, almost as if to accentuate her point. “I’m just lucky it’s the first day back and all we’re doing is revising, admin stuff and maybe some group activities.” She yawned again. As it was she’d been dozing off most of the morning, chunks of time passing without her even realising. “I’m lucky I’ve already had most of these teachers before. They’d probably think I’m a slacker who doesn’t take the class seriously otherwise. What about you?”

[Kaore]

Bryant started laughing at the pudding comment but quickly calmed down enough to answer her question. "Honestly?" He asked as he took a bite of his salad "I zoned out during most of it and don't remember much of anything. I doubt there was anything very important that was discussed. But then again I may be wrong... but oh well, theres no point on dwelling on the past. Got to look at the future." He had actually spent most of the lessons thinking about ways to control his powers or use them in different ways. He was trying to think outside the box unlike the power practical course instructors who wanted him to do some very common things with his lightning or electricity. While they wanted him to make larger blasts he wanted to focus a powerful blast into a shape like a blade and use it to cut things with. Nobody would expect a blade made out of lightning to cut anything or a whip of electricity to wrap around them. It was hard going and his experimentation generally ended with him hurting himself in someway but he was making progress. Shaking his head he refocused on his conversation with Kaya. "I was thinking about ways to utilise my powers in different ways that would be difficult to predict." He told her.

[Midna-Phobia]

Kaya shrugged carelessly at the comment. “I guess if you’re planning on going down the super hero road then it’s not like you’re going to need math r science anyway.” She spoke honestly. It was something that had always annoyed her a little bit about school. They were so focused about shoving useless information into your head they never bothered to make time to teach you any truly valuable life skills. Well they did sometimes, but they were usually electives. Bryant spoke again, catching her attention and the girl pouted slightly before punching him gently in the arm. “Will you just be careful this time? I’m still not good with the medical side of alchemy. I get worried when I have to put you back together.” She pouted and returned to her food. Bryant had so many different challenges to face than she did. She wasn’t sure she would have been able to use her powers at all if there hadn't been books and texts to learn from and her father to guide her. He had to make everything up as he went along and, a lot of the time he had gotten hurt in the process. It worried her. What would happen if one day one of his powers backfired and his heart stopped? What would she do without him?

[Kaore]

Bryant saw the pout on Kaya's face and sighed. He knew his training was dangerous, thats why he only tried new things when with his mother... who could revive him quite easily if the worse should happen. So far thouhg all thats happened was a few explosions and burns from the heata few techniques generated. He hadn't been shocked and even suspected that he couldn't be harmed by electricity... unless he got wet. Then whenever he used his powers he shocked himself, though the first time he had done so was when he was about ten and tried to catch lightning... he suceeded but he was paralyzed for a few days. "I am careful... I'm always careful to not try new things unsupervised and you know that." He told his friend "Besides I haven't blown myself up in six months." (OOC: Feel free to correct him :D) There was many reasons why he trusted his mother to be able to fix him up more than pretty much anyone. She was a genius and could manipulate energy in anyway she wanted... meaning she could generate a healing energy that induced regeneration in those she used it on. She could do much more destructive things but from what he had been told about her Super Villain days she preffered to use her powers to fight one one one against her enemies rather than widespread destruction.

[Midna-Phobia]

“Five.” Kaya said without a hesitation or looking up from her food. “About a month after the incident you’re thinking of you tried the exact same thing with exactly the same results.” She looked up at him with a cheeky grin and laughed softly to herself. “And, of course I assume we’re not counting that time about a month or so ago when you overloaded the power grid and we didn’t have power for twelve hours… well except for the stuff you powered up for us.” She said with a small giggle. Still, despite everything she’d never really had to worry about him too much. Of course it was always frightening, terrifying even when his powers backfired on him or didn’t do what he wanted and he got hurt. But his mother had always been able to patch him right up; her powers had mostly been used to repair damages he may have caused. Personally Kaya liked Bryant’s mum, she had always been really nice to her and she had never felt unwelcome in the home. She was also fascinated with her powers, though she had always likened it to a type of bio alchemy at least in her mind, not really up to saying it to the woman’s face out of respect for her. She knew if it had been her she wouldn’t like to have her powers compared to something else.

[Kaore]

Bryant huffed and looked away. "That didn't count. I was talking about trying different things... not trying the same thing and getting the same result. Thats a completely different level of stupid." He told her calmly. He hated th power outage. It was really tiring to use such a tiny amount of his powers to power the electrical devices. It was hard to use small amounts. He hated using small amounts and found it to be a complete and utter waste. Then again if he hadn't then he'd probably have been bored and done something even dumber in an attempt to entertain himself. But he also knew that if he did that then Kaya and his mother would probably try and kill him. Some of the things he'd tried was making a bolt of lightning that didn't shock or burn but instead pierce his target. He needed to focus the energy into the tip of his finger and fire it in a concentrated beam... which was very difficult. He was also trying to make a super powerful attack designed to take out really realy powerful enemies... he was still in the design phase of that one though and wasn't even thinking about trying it out yet. "So hows your Alchemical studies going?" He asked ia an attempt to change the subject.

[Midna-Phobia]

Kaya was perfectly happy to change the subject seeing Bryant was getting annoyed with it. However at the question she simply shrugged slightly and waved her hand back and forth. “It’s been better. I’m not allowed to look at some of my dad’s books; he says the alchemy in it is too powerful and could be dangerous, so I’m a little limited in the different kinds I can learn. It doesn’t help that mostly everything I read is encrypted to some degree so that some stranger can’t pick it up and do something stupid with it, so sometimes I just hit blocks and get stuck.” She pulled a book out of the bag she had sitting beside her and placed it on the table. I spent a good portion of the holidays trying to crack this one but I can’t for the life of me figure it out. At this point I’m not even sure what the book’s supposed to be about so that’s not helping.” She pouted slightly before shrugging with a small smile. “I’ll get there someday. I don’t know what’s more frustrating, being unable to read the information in front of me or knowing there is more I’ll never even get a chance to look at.”

[Kaore]

"Your dads just as bad as your mom. Maybe even worse since he's gone all the time." He told her "You two have the same power... and one that needs to be studied. He should be home helping you with your powers. Instead he's off who knows where doing who knows what. It's like he doesn't care about you." Truth was he didn't like Kaya's father. He was never at home and thusly wasn't there to help his daughter out when she needed help. Bryant had been more helpful for her then he had ever been and it really bugged him. Why couldn't the man take some time off to help his only daughter? When he had kids he'd be there for them as often as possible. He wouldn't leave for long periods at a time and would train his children if they had the same powers as he did... why the hell was he thinking about children again? "I can't remember what I was thinking about just now." He wondred aloud in confusion.