Rose Tinted Glasses [IC]

[Gizmo]

Trevor Hunter brought his hand down hard on the shrill alarm clock next to his bed with an annoyed grunt, and let his eyes drift open slightly. Immediately regretting it, he threw the outstretched arm over his face, brushing through the small cloud of midnight mist he'd instinctively released to block out the offending rays shining through the window of his dormitory room. Casting about with his free hand, he located the pair of sunglasses he'd recently taken to wearing and stiffly donned them, rolling cramped shoulder blades with a mild grimace.

The young man realized that he was still wearing the pants from the day before, having barely managed to toss his shirt into the growing heap of laundry in the corner of the room before collapsing into bed. Grudgingly, he admitted that he was probably pushing himself too hard; even given his trained stamina and copious amounts of caffeine, he couldn't keep up his current sleep schedule, or lack thereof, without increasing consequences. Hauling himself to his feet, Trevor reached into the open closet to grab a dark blue dress shirt from a hanger, squinting as he threw it on and waited for his eyes to adjust to the daylight. His time at Claremont had added a significant amount of lithe muscle to his wiry frame; though he was still notably lanky, the youth was slowly filling out to match his substantial height.

Suppressing a curse as he accidentally stepped on a loose piece of machinery that had strayed from his workbench, Trevor continued to get dressed. Opting the run a hand once through his hair before covering it with his beaten fedora rather than a shower under harsh fluorescent lights, the teen stepped out into the hallway, making his way towards the common room and rubbing his eyes distractedly as he went. Hopefully a brief walk would alleviate some the pains left from an awkward night's sleep.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hey, Trevor!" It wasn't so much that Mark appeared from nowhere as he was simply there in the hallway, luckily, as Trevor stepped out of his room. "How you doin'?" Mark almost clapped his good buddy on the back, before belatedly remembering that Trevor could be a little standoffish sometimes. "Me, I had a great day," he said cheerfully. "You'll never believe who turned out to be...hey, is something different about you today?" he asked, studying Trevor as they went. "Did you change your hair?"

[Electra]

Erin was in the common room already, and from the look of it hadn't gone to bed the previous evening. She was laying on the couch with a stack of textbooks next to her, but she was reading a paperback mystery novel instead of looking at any of them. As noise and voices approached, she looked over long enough to ascertain that she knew them. "Morning," she said with a wave. "We're gonna get rain today. Better walk with Mark if you don't want to get wet."

[Gizmo]

Trevor responded to Mark's arrival with a exhalation that wasn't quite heavy enough to be a sigh. "Mark," he said in simple greeting, his tone soft but amiable enough. Pushing aside the nagging suspicion that the universe was conspiring to give him a splitting migraine, he answered his gregarious classmate's question by adjusting his fedora slightly and replying, "...no."

A considerable amount of the tension in the young man's shoulders melted away upon seeing Erin in the common room. "Really?" he asked absently, brow furrowing subtly behind his oval sunglasses. "Seemed sunny out."

[April]

--You can feel it on the air,-- Eve said as she breezed into the common room, dressed for a run though from her slightly flushed appearance it was safe to assume she had already completed it. Settling down into a chair, though careful not to lean against the backrest, Eve casually waved at the assembled. --In any case, good morning,-- she said cheerfully while she took a drink of water.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hey Erin! Hey Eve!" said Mark cheerfully. If he held getting punched in the face, or being his ex's cousin, against either of the girls, he gave no sign of that. Erin had been mind-controlled, it wasn't like she'd smacked him around in anger. That was a necessary part of the job. As for Eve, well, Faith had a big family. What could you do? "I was thinking that later, after class and training, we could go down to the Boardwalk and get taffy! I won a contest on the computer to let me get as much taffy as I can carry," he added, whipping out a placard from his pocket, "so I was thinking I could share it with you guys! Then we could, I dunno, watch the ocean. Or go on the beach."

[Electra]

"I'll carry the taffy for you," Erin offered laconically. "But you might want to wait till tomorrow, we really do need the rain." She had a sneaking suspicion that if Mark decided to spend the day outdoors, it would not rain despite the heaviness of the air and the weatherman's predictions. "And it's pretty overcast out right now, but a little sunny, I guess." She sat up and got a better look at Trevor, concern crossing her face. "What time did you get in?" she asked.

[Gizmo]

Trevor gave the two girls a questioning look, silently mouthing the word 'taffy'. "Not late," he assured Erin aloud. "Two, three o'clock. ...four, maybe." After a beat, he asked, somewhat sheepishly, "...what time is it now?" Glancing out the window, a faint wince flickered across his face. He wasn't sure what Erin had been talking about; the scene outside was uncomfortably bright. Then again, the lights in the common room were nearly as bad, so it might have just been him. Should have adjusted by now, he thought to himself.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I think that's cheating, Erin," said Mark cordially, "but you're welcome to as much taffy as you want. There's no way I can eat all that I can carry. And Trevor, it's seven-thirty on the dot," said Mark cheerfully as he walked over to take a seat by the window, flattening out his taffy placard to look it over again. "I've started waking up with a fresh pot of Folger's Natural Crystals every morning, and let me tell you, best decision I ever made! They really know how to get my bull running, if you know what I mean." He gave Trevor a concerned look, then added, "Trevor, didn't you have any coffee this morning? You look like you need some."

[Electra]

"Mark, can't you just, you know, make all the taffy you can carry?" Erin asked, setting aside her book and rolling gracefully to her feet. "Then you could be sure you wouldn't get any of the gross flavors, either." She nodded a greeting to Eve, then walked over to Trevor. "You're looking pretty rough," she told him, sympathetic despite the bluntness. "Maybe you could use a nap more than more coffee right now. Are you feeling okay otherwise?"

[angrydurf]

Mike stuck his head in the common room as he passed by and smiled to his clustered friends, "Hey guys whats ..." he paused as he heard Erins commentary, "up?" he asked brow raised in curiosity, "Why would he make all the taffy he can carry?" he asked totally lost at the odd topic of conversation. He looked to Trevor and kinda assumed it was his usual pre coffee look its how his dad looked before coffee most mornings. Then again Mikes Dad was in his lat forties.

[Gizmo]

Trevor murmured in brief agreement to Mark's suggestion, realizing that he'd left the coffee maker its automatically brewed pot connected to the alarm clock he'd swatted untouched. Coffee honestly hadn't occurred to him that morning, which in and of itself raised a few red flags in the recesses of the distracted teen's mind. "I'm fine," he assured Erin nevertheless, with a weak smile. "Not even that tired, just bit of a headache behind my eyes. Stress, I guess."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Oh yeah, I guess I could," said Mark. "Not the taffy, I mean, that'd be cheating after I won!" Deciding to take this opportunity to grow as a person (and really, who could object to that?), Mark looked down at his hands and concentrated. A swirl of inky black dots later, and he was handing a shiny black coffee cup to Trevor, the product of fell sorcery and reality-warping magic incongruously emblazoned with a crudely sparkled WORLD'S BEST MIDNIGHT. "Here you go, Trevor." Inside, a dark liquid roiled with sinister purpose, the sharp scent of roasted coffee beans rising to Trevor's nose. "It should be pretty good."

[Electra]

Erin gave Mark a look that said she wasn't entirely sure of his culinary prowess, but most of her attention stayed on Trevor. "You can go to the infirmary and they'll give you something for it," she suggested, then leaned in, looking almost as though she were going to kiss him. Instead, she studied his eyes through the dark sunglasses. "Did you do something to your eyes?" she asked. Normally she wouldn't have done it, but concern overrode politeness and she reached up to carefully tug down his sunglasses.

[angrydurf]

Concern passed over Mikes face at Erins question. He focused beyond the glasses to see what Erin had taken note of enhanced vision allowing him to see past the taciturn teens protective eye-wear as if they were not even there, "Did anything happen recently?" he asked as he tried to make out what had happened to Trevors eyes.

[Gizmo]

Trevor was distracted from Mark's disturbingly cavalier use of his immense power by Erin's sudden proximity to his face. "Not that I can think of," he replied as she slipped his sunglasses down his nose. Pale eyelids blinked in bemusement over glossy black orbs divided by luminous rings of crimson. Despite their inhuman colouration, from her vantage point Erin could recognize a familiar mix of careful observation and curiosity in the eyes, which looked into her own questioningly.

[Electra]

Erin sucked in a startled breath of air and took a step back, incidentally tugging the sunglasses all the way off and baring Trevor's face. "Oh my God," she murmured. "Your eyes... Trevor, have you seen your eyes? There's something really wrong with them." They don't look rotten, she told herself firmly, they don't. Even if they were blackened and looked almost bloody, it wasn't the same. It was still profoundly disturbing though.

[Gizmo]

Trevor's expression fell a fraction of a notch at Erin's reaction, confusion flickering across his face, as he took a reflexive step back in response to her retreat. Eyes...? The lean young man's dorm room had come with a small wall mounted mirror, but one of the first things he'd done while unpacking was to take it down in favour of a large whiteboard. "How... how so?" he asked hesitantly, a subtle note of strain in his soft voice.

[Avenger Assembled]

Wow, that...that...how did THAT happen? Mark had seen a lot of things in his short life, but the transformation of his friend's gaze was something else entirely when it came to flat-out weirdness. Mark's own eyes were very wide as he produced a round makeup mirror from behind his back and handed it to Trevor. Briefly silent for a moment, he finally hazarded "Well...maybe you're getting new powers? Or you've been using yours too much? I don't know." For once, Mark looked embarassed to be talking so much as Trevor caught sight of his face in the mirror.

[Gizmo]

Accepting the mirror, Trevor took a long look into its reflective surface. His expression was carefully schooled to betray no hint of reaction as he slowly ran the fingers of his free hand over the cheek bone below on eye. The sclera of both was totally black, a gleaming darkness which exaggerated the brightness of the now brilliantly red irises. Calmly taking off his fedora and setting it on the armrest of Eve's chair, he took another look into the mirror to confirm what he'd just seen before handing it back to Mark without comment. The only sign of agitation was the increasing thick wisps of inky mist rising up from the back of his neck. "Excuse me," he said finally, walking swiftly to the common room door as mist began to pour form his sleeves as well.

By the time he's crossed half of the distance, most of the dark haired youth was concealed by the cloud. Trevor stopped in his tracks abruptly, and was absolutely still for a few long moments while the mist dissipated into the air. "I can see through the mist without my goggles," he informed his classmates tonelessly, still facing away from them.

[angrydurf]

Mike jerked his head back slightly as he caught sight of change in Trevor's eyes but kept silent as Mark and Erin reacted more concerned that his friend might be ill it not occurring to him that it might be related to the shadowy heroes powers.

"Trevor wait." he said as the youth looked to be leaving and took a step to follow when Trevor revealed what other changes had been wrought, "You can see through the mist?" he asked clarifying the obvious, "Like how?"

[April]

Eve watched Trevor with a concerned expression on her face, and for the first time was irritated at his outward calm and emotional detachment. "Of course I could find out what he's really thinking," the telepath mused, but the moment that thought surfaced Eve immediately crushed it. She had to trust Trevor to speak up if there was any pain or discomfort, just as he had to trust her that she wouldn't violate the privacy of his thoughts.

Instead, she settled back into her chair, and carefully watched Trevor curious as to what his answer would be to Mike's inquiry.

[Gizmo]

"Lenses in my mask are chemically treated to respond to broader spectrum. See through the mist," Trevor elaborated tonelessly, his back still to the rest of the room, and his body language carefully composed. Finally turning back to the others, he gazed flatly at his classmates with discoloured orbs. "Eyes do the same now. Secondary mutation..." he mused distractedly, "Continuing transformation?" Speaking largely to himself, the dark haired youth seemed completely unperturbed by the revelation except for the unconscious clenching and unclenching of his right hand.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Oh, wow! You got new powers!" Mark smiled, trying to comfort Trevor at a moment when he was obviously stressed out. "That's really cool. I mean, I know looking funny is weird," added the gorgeous, incredibly handsome heir to the famous Lucas genes, "but I'm sure you'll be able to get that figured out. I mean, it only just happened, right? We're teenagers, it's sort of like super-powered puberty." He clapped Trevor on the shoulder and added, "You should go see Nurse Joy, man. She can look you over and see if what happened will stick, or if you need to go see one of the regular super-scientists like Viktor Archeville to see what's really going on. I mean, that's why we have nurses and doctors who know about this stuff!"

[Electra]

It wasn't entirely easy for Erin to look Trevor in the face right then, a fact that discomfited and shamed her. His eyes were okay, just different, and that was one thing they all got pounded into them at school, that different wasn't bad. It just... it made him look so strange, alien really. But she looked anyway, and tried to concentrate on the shape of them, rather than the color, and the way his eyebrows arched, and the curve of his cheekbones beneath them. "It looks a little strange," she admitted, "but if they don't go back on their own, we'll all get used to them quickly enough, I guess. Do they hurt?" she asked, handing him back the sunglasses.