ic Raising Spirits [IC]

[Gizmo]

Kimber paused what she was doing to draw her legs up beneath her floating form to mimic reclining in a car seat with one forearm resting out an imaginary open window. "Same way I ride in a plane; just sort of float along and try not thing about it too much!" the phantom laughed brightly, nose crinkling slightly as she beamed. "Ugh, thirty degrees?" she repeated as Kristin described her home. "Sweltering! The weather usually just a little over freezing in Thunder Bay, but it can get down around minus twenty or twenty-five during a good winter!" The phantom sighed, still in a seated position as she rested her chin in her palm. "I don't really remember much anyway, though, so it's not like I can miss it too much! Silver lining!"

[April]

"I know what it is like to miss home," Eve said, leaning to pat Kristin on the shoulder. "I was lucky enough to have my cousin attend Claremont for a year. It made the transition easier but brought with it its own set of headaches." Shrugging, she added, "I also have my brother in the city, rare though it is to see him." Then she grinned and nodded, "You could say it is a sports car, yes."

She watched the two work at their assigned task, talking a little of home. Kimber had one of the rocks back in its original place and Kristin had managed to create a few lines around it close to their former precision. Eve felt that was a good spot to take a small break, and said as much.

"What do you think about the abilities you have?" Eve asked. "Blessing or curse?"

[Scuffles]

"Eve!" Kristin scowled. "Stop playing coy! What kind of sports car? Fine! You're totally taking me for a ride in it, I'll find out then!"

She gave the sand of the Zen garden another look, then stood to stretch a bit and walked a lap around it. Eve's next question wasn't one that needed much thinking about however.

"It's a blessing for sure." She answered quickly. "I'm not a danger to anyone now that I have my abilities under control and I didn't really have to give anything up. I'm away from family and friends, but really I can go back whenever I want, so even that's only temporary."

She paused a little and a thoughtful look crossed her face. "I guess the one thing that bothers me a little is that when a few of my friends came to see me off.. well, the way that they looked at me. They looked like they were afraid of me. I don't like that very much..."

Her voice trailed off and she chewed on her bottom lip a bit as she started on a second lap of the Zen garden.

[Gizmo]

"Well, technically, I am a curse!" Kimber pointed out, folding her legs beneath her as she floated. "Well. I'm a haunting, which is like a curse, I think. Maybe. I hope I'm not using the terms wrong, that's something I should really know! I think a curse is like... when something is just damp, but a haunting is like someone actually spitting on it!" The specter nodded definitively. "So I'm like spit!" There was a pause before she frowned deeply. "Oh, yuck, I don't like that analogy at all."

The ghost grinned a bit in spite of herself when Kristin mentioned her friends' reaction to her new powers. "Aw, but scaring people is great!" she exclaimed before shooting a sidelong glance at Eve. Straightening her levitating legs so that she could clasp her hands behind her back in a look of exaggerated innocence, she quickly corrected, "I mean awful. Terrible! You definitely shouldn't sneak up invisibly behind people and make a loud noise or make a scary face in their mirror or anything. Who would even do that, eh? Nobody I know, that's for sure!"

[Scuffles]

Kristin chuckled, then did her best to match Kimber's expression of innocence. "You're right, sneaking up invisibly on people and scaring them is very very naughty. I can't imagine ever doing something like that! Especially with the bit where I can't turn invisible!"

She snickered as she imagined Kimber frightening people for fun. "You're like little miss mischief aren't you?" she grinned. "But you're totally not like spit! Spit is ick and yuck and you're .. well, not ick and yuck!"

Still chuckling the Aussie youngster turned towards Eve. "Come on then, spill. We answered, you have to too! Are your abilities a blessing or a curse?" she asked, wondering what the response would be. Eve after all, had given up a very promising career in exchange for her abilities.

[April]

Eve got quiet.

The smile vanished from her face and she looked down, averting her gaze from the other two girls, her jaw-length white hair falling forward to obscure her expression. When she started speaking again, her voice was quieter than normal.

"If you had asked me that question as late as a year ago I would have said curse without hesitation, My latent psychic ability manifesting cost me a lot, and there is a certain stigma attached to telepaths." Eve answered. "Now," she added, looking up at Kimber and Kristin, "I don't know." The telepath glanced over at the Claremont dormitories and smiled.

"Some parts are worth it."

[Gizmo]

Kimber made a show of looking over her own shoulder at Kristin's accusation of mischief, pointing to herself with an expression of bemused innocence at the suggestion that the Australian could have been referring to her. The poltergeist's expression quickly turned more pensive at Eve's more reserved answer to her own query. "Well, um, I mean..." she began hesitantly, unsure how to best word her interjection, "I'm glad you're here, at least. 'Cause otherwise I would have been a lot more scared when we went to that other school, the bad one, and there wouldn't be anyone helping us train now and maybe they wouldn't have even had anyone to send to pick all of us up from all over the place and those jerks Indira told me about might have hurt her in Mumbai and those other guys in Detroit might have kidnapped Koshiro and--" Kimber's voice picked up speed as she spoke, clearly distressed by the prospects she was listing and not needing to take a breath even as the sentence ran on and on.

[Scuffles]

Kristin chuckled at Kimber's exaggerated display of innocence, but then immediately felt bad when Eve looked so downcast about having to answer her own question. She chewed her bottom lip as she listened quietly to the answer, then nodded a little. As stressful as breaking out with her own powers had been she really hadn't given anything up, but Eve really had.

She smiled faintly as Kimber started to list off her series of events, then raised an eyebrow as the list went on and on. "Kimber! Kimber!" she interrupted as the poltergeist started to look a little distressed. "It's okay, she's still here, right?" she grinned. "And for what it's worth Eve, I'm glad you're here too."

Once Kimber had calmed down a little the young Australian looked back and forth between her two new friends. "That sounded like a fair few stories you've got! you're going to have to tell me about some of them sometime!"

[April]

Eve chuckled and nodded at Kristin. "Sure," she said, sounding a bit more cheerful. "What I can tell you, at least," she added.

Eve wasn't too certain what she could discuss with regard to the multiversal shenanigans Young Freedom got up to, just thinking about them gave the telepath a headache (and part of her was bothered by the existence of her amoral counterpart) and she knew she couldn't discuss the situation with Omega.

"Young Freedom, the previous incarnation," Eve clarified, "Had been through quite a bit, a good 95 percent of it was terrifying in some fashion or another. But we got through it." Flashing Kimber a quick smile, Eve turned back to Kristin and added, "If the new kids were faced with the same threats, I'm confident they'll pull through too."

[Gizmo]

Gulping audibly with an abashed look, Kimber ducked her head in between her shoulders when Kristin cut off her rambling fretting. "Sorry, sorry!" she apologized in embarrassment. "I'm calm! Just got a little worked up there for a minute..." Not having much in the way of memories to choose from, the time she'd spent with her friends as part of the newer incarnation of Young Freedom was particularly dear to her. "Ahem. It's true, though! We're pretty tough! It helps that like half of us don't have any internal organs or anything, I guess." Giggling, the poltergeist waved her hands in mock distress. "Oh no, what if a supervillain kills me?! The horror!" Her cheerful expression made it clear that any morbidity to the statement was entirely lost on her.

[Scuffles]

Kristin couldn't help but chuckle as Kimber cheerfully mocked the dangers of facing down supervillains. "I'm guessing it must be pretty difficult to do you any damage," she agreed with a grin. "Things probably just mostly pass right through you when people try to poke you with them!"

The makeup of the current Young Freedom team was a pretty interesting topic. "But you said that half of the team has no internal organs. Who else would that be?" She asked curiously. "Unless that's some kind of big secret of course. I'd never try to find out big secrets!"

The Australian youngster did her best to put on an innocent expression. It didn't really work. "Alright alright, I'm totally going to find out even if you don't tell me!"

[April]

"I would prefer if a super villain didn't get the chance to try, Kimber," Eve said with a laugh, giving the perky poltergeist a playful telekinetic shove. Still smiling, Eve shook her head at Kristin.

"Don't go digging for that information," the older student said. "For some of us, secrets like that protect not only ourselves but those we care about; it might indicate a place of origin, for instance." The telepath really didn't think the mild rebuke was needed, however there were times when the upperclassman was expected to set friendship aside for the role of mentor and this one one of them. She hoped her tone took any sting out of the words.

"They're nice people, just like yourself. They might just tell you."

[Gizmo]

Kimber looked suitably abashed for having let anything slip in the first place, her hands shooting up to cover her mouth. "Oh! Um, I didn't mean-- That is... it's just an expression?" The poltergeist's shoulders slumped as she heard her own words aloud. "From Canada? In... in the eighties. Yeah. I guess you've probably never heard it before." After just enough silence to be awkward, she moved her hands up from her mouth to cover the rest of her face. "Augh, ohmigosh, it's a good thing I don't know my real name 'cause I'd be awful at secret identities. Sorry, forget I said anything, okay? Please?"

[Scuffles]

Kristin frowned briefly, but then stuck her tongue out cheekily at Eve. "You're totally no fun. Fine, I promise I won't be a busy-body and stick my nose in other peoples business. Maybe. Until I get curious. Oh fine, I'll behave!"

She turned her attention to Kimber as the poltergeist tried her best to backtrack and cover up the little bit of information. Really badly. "So it's an expression. From Canada in the eighties. About not having internal organs. And you totally didn't mean it literally even if it actually happens to be true for you?" she teased.

"Nice cover story!" she chuckled. "But anyway, I won't pry. I was just curious. I've heard tons of rumors about how Young Freedom are pretty top-drawer so it's pretty interesting to hear some stuff that's more than just a rumors!"

[April]

"Sorry, I didn't mean to come down on you so hard like that," Eve apologized. She couldn't fault Kristin for being curious, she would have been too if she were in the Australian teens position.

"I suppose we could share a few stories about what we've been up to," the telepath started. She shrugged and added, "Hopefully the real stories are as interesting as the rumors. Though I think Kimber should spin the tale of what we've done this year, especially since she along with the new team members have shouldered much of the burden of getting things done." Which was true, the new members were instrumental in dealing with Collins, which was probably the most harrowing task the current Young Freedom had engaged in--if only because of the number of lives it directly impacted.

"Lately I just spend my time butting heads with Corbin," the telepath finished with a sigh.

[Gizmo]

"You don't know. The eighties were very different," Kimber insisted, folding her arms tightly against her chest with a bit of a pout. "There was... much bigger hair, for one thing!" Giving up on the ill maintained ruse with a sigh, she dropped her arms and slumped her shoulders slightly. "Oh fine. Oh, you don't do that all the time, Eve!" she insisted, quickly switching from mild dejection to bright-eyed concern. "Okay, you two kinda argue a lot. A bit, I mean! Only some of the time!" She gave the telepath a pair of encouraging thumbs up.

[Scuffles]

Kristin raised an eyebrow as she looked back and forth between Kimber and Eve.

Wow, sounds like tension in Young-Freedom-land? That's pretty interesting...

Instead of pressing further however, Kristin bounced to her feet and put on her best wide-eyed impersonation of Kimber. "Eve, how can you possibly butt heads with Corbin? I don't really know him, but he's at least this big," she exclaimed, standing right up on her toes and stretching one hand above her head. "And you're like this big!" she declared, her other hand held at shoulder height. "You'd have to like jump or something. Not that you can't jump, I mean, you're great at jumping. But still..."