No focus (Eloise and Adaryn)

[emilybuj]

Eloise hadn't spent much time in her dorm room yet. She didn't necessarily like it too much. There were too many people all around. Specifically, there were way too many girls. Girls thoughts were a lot louder and a lot more random than guys thoughts (usually. There were exceptions). Girls minds could go a mile a minute, and when Eloise was around enough of them she felt like she was going to implode.

But it was a particularly rainy day, and the library was being used for some sort of seminar, so Ella was stuck doing her homework in her room. It was minimal - seeing as she was grade nine and school had barely even started - but she still struggled to keep her mental block up as well as complete the assignments she was given.

She sighed, and shifted the papers around on her desk, then rocked back in her chair, feeling somewhat defeated. She closed her eyes, and tried to will away the headache that was forming. Luckily, it was fairly quiet in her room. Only one of the other girls was there, and she was often very quiet. Ella and Adaryn hadn't really talked much. They seemed to both like things quiet. Ella wasn't complaining, of course. Her life was already loud enough.

[Lux]

In the beginning, she was rather terrified of having to be put into a dorm with at least two other girls. Raging hormones and mood swings weren't very enjoyable for a girl who can feel emotions. When her sister was around, she would constantly have to lock herself in her room whenever she was having her period. It was impossible to live in the same house when three out of four times her sister, while it being that time of the month, was either depressed or very pissed off. As much as Adaryn hated saying this, it still was true. Her sister made her sick, physically ill.

But today, with nothing to do, Adaryn found herself sitting on her bed quietly while the other girl --Eloise-- was sitting down and doing homework. She had already finished hers earlier, so she really didn't have to worry. But the girl seemed to be good at hiding her emotions, because Adaryn hadn't seen much of a change in her demeanor, and the only thing she could see was how Eloise seemed to be a bit stressed. Though it didn't take her power to see that, her body language was also showing it.

Should she try to help her with her homework? Adaryn wasn't the best in a classroom setting because of her power, so she tended to get poor grades, but she would make herself read over the lesson again in a quiet and isolated environment after school. It seemed to help with her understanding... "Uhm, Do you need any help?" Adaryn offered quietly, her voice wavering slightly. She still wasn't able to speak to people very confidently, regardless if they were her room mates.

[emilybuj]

Eloise turned to look at the girl who was sitting on a bed behind her. Adaryn didn't talk much. Ella wasn't even sure she had ever really memorized the sound of her voice. She had to actually turn around to see who it was. "Oh... I'm fine," Ella said turning back to her desk with a sigh. "I just have a bit of a headache." The statement came off a little annoyed - obviously at the headache, not at her roommate. "I can't really focus..."

Eloise tossed her pencil aside, and left her desk, realizing she wouldn't be able to finish the work in this condition. Maybe she would take a nap and then do it at night. It wasn't a half bad idea. She hopped up on her bed which faced Adaryn's from the other side of the room. She tried to relax just a bit, but it brought her mental block down, and the rush of thoughts caused Ella to groan. She couldn't distinguish any thought from another, let alone her roommates, but somehow Ella figured the girl was wondering if Ella was ok still. The sound that Eloise had produced was probably enough to make her roomate think she was crazy.

"Sorry..." Eloise said leaning up to sit back leaning on her elbows. "I... its a power thing... hard to explain I guess." She always just figured most wouldn't understand her struggle.

[Lux]

Adaryn felt a bit sorry for the girl. She wasn't sure what power she had, but it seemed to be interfering with her school work, and Adaryn knew that feeling too well. She enjoyed being alone because she wasn't feeling all these mixed emotions around her. It would be alright if the positive emotions were more powerful than the negative, but that was not the case. If there are five happy individuals, if there is one depressed individual, it will ruin her mood completely. Nobody was going to be happy all the time, and Adaryn knew that, so she just chose to stay away.

"A power thing?" She repeated softly. So Eloise was having these troubles because of something with her power. "I get it," She said a bit awkwardly, not used to speaking to people yet. "Uhm, what is your power if you don't mind me asking..."

[emilybuj]

"Um..." Eloise started, considering lying and telling her she talked to animals like she usually did. But somehow she thought that her roommate was going to find out eventually. Then probably be mad at her for lying. And from what she had already said there was no way that animals could be disrupting her school work to this extent. "Yeah... I'm telepathic," she said, hoping she wouldn't get the reaction from Adaryn that she had gotten from Talon earlier. "I read minds," she clarified. "Everybody's mind. All at once," she continued to highlight the issue at hand.

"Why?" eloise asked since the girl had expressed sympathy. "What's your power?" At least the girl expressed some sort of understanding of having a burden upon her shoulders due to her power.

[Lux]

Telepathic... That was so much worse than what Adaryn had to deal with. Feeling emotions was one thing, but hearing thoughts? She didn't know how she could possibly deal with all of that on a daily basis. "That must be... awful." Though did this girl really want the sympathy and the sorry that Adaryn was sure to give? Instead, she just decided to tap into her emotions slightly to see what she was feeling. Stress...Pain. Maybe she could help Eloise after she explained what her power was? Hopefully, because it would be nice to help someone since she didn't seem to be practically spitting at her... on purpose.

"I am empathetic. But I also can manipulate the emotions of others too..." She tried giving the girl a smile, something that showed she understood. "I can feel the emotions of everyone around me, and if they are strong enough, I can sometimes see them. But it is hard when there is a group of people with different emotions, especially when they are negative. They even have a certain... something to them. Emotions make a room much heavier, suffocating even." The negative emotions are what could cause her to go insane and lose concentration, it even caused her to cut herself. "And because I don't have control of my powers... It really does get to me... Just one negative emotion can ruin my mood completely." Adaryn hadn't realized she had went on and on about her power. She usually wasn't this chatty, but maybe she was excited that someone could sympathize with her.

[emilybuj]

"Oh wow," Eloise said. While the girl couldn't hear complete thoughts, she definitively could relate to the overwhelming feeling of having a thousand people around with a thousand thoughts, or in Adaryn's case, feelings. It was suffocating. Eloise knew that feeling all too well. Sometimes El didn't think she even had her own thoughts. She wondered if Adaryn felt the same about her own emotions. Maybe that's why she was so quiet.

"It is pretty aweful but I can't imagine it being much better for you," Eloise said. "I mean... what they think doesn't usually change how I'm feeling. It just gives me massive headaches," she laughed. Even though there was nothing funny about the pain she felt or burden of knowing too much about one person. "I usually have up a mental block though. It helps but takes up a lot of energy."

[Lux]

Eloise's responce was a simple 'Oh wow' and it made Adaryn smile slightly. Just a quirk of her lips really, but as close to a smile as Adaryn had really gotten in quite a while. Honestly, she had never really expected anyone to ever understand anything that she had gone through. Since her parents never even knew powers existed, and neither did she, they all thought she was bipolar. It was a horrible time in her life, and she didn't what to think about it any longer.

"I never realized I was empathetic until maybe a year ago," She spoke in her signature quietness that people either hated or loved. "They thought I was bipolar for majority of my life..." Why was she saying all of this at one time? Maybe she was just so thrilled to have someone who gets it, or even a possible friend, that she finally wanted to talk about what had happened in life. "So yeah, I don't have a mental block that I can use to block out the waves of emotions around me everyday. I'm hoping they will teach me here." It was one good thing about being here. She could learn how to control her power, and when she learned, she could probably be a normal person--It was something she always wanted.

[emilybuj]

"I would hope they will," Eloise said with a fair deal of confidence. "I mean... the only reason I learned is because my father is also telepathic. He taught me," she continued. Sometimes Eloise forgot most people with powers don't have a parent with powers the way she does. There was no correlation between genetics and powers. It seemed to be random selection. She was actually lucky that he father not only had powers, but had the same power as her.

"I mean... I could try to teach you if they don't. I can't imagine it being exactly the same... but I know how much it sucks... to be bombarded with other people's problems, joys, excitement, sorrow," Eloise sympathized. She could see why some would think Adaryn bipolar. They would probably think Ella was schizophrenic or something if it weren't for her father.

[Lux]

"Sometimes I can control it, but more often then not, there is just too much for me to handle." Adaryn was weak in that aspect of her power, but she was sure that one day she would learn. But now that she knew there might be somebody to help her with this, there was a part of her that felt relieved that she didn't have to do this completely on her own. "Maybe you can help me... and I can help you with your assignments...?" Was that a rude thing to say? Adaryn wasn't so sure, considering she wasn't used to speaking to people in general. "Because you seem to be having a hard time..."

Maybe she could even help her by using her power. Adaryn could tell the girl was stressed, and when someone get's too stressed, it is difficult to concentrate on anything. It might be helpful to her if she could use her empathetic manipulation to calm her down every so often. But she wasn't going to offer that unless it came down to the point where she had to. People didn't like their emotions manipulated after all.

[emilybuj]

Eloise shrugged, turning to look at the work she had abandoned on her desk. "I know I can do the work," she admitted. "I'm just really worked up right now and I don't suppose..." Eloise mentally smacked herself in the head. Of course Adaryn was suggesting manipulating her emotions. And Ella needed to hear it in her thoughts before she realized it. But she wasn't totally turned off by the idea.

"I don't know..." Ella said honestly. "I mean... does it effect you? Using your power that way I mean?" She asked. Because Ella knew the toll her power had on her and wouldn't ever wish that upon anybody else.

[Lux]

Adaryn was a bit shocked at how Eloise knew she wanted to maybe use her power on her, but then she realized she was telepathic. Shouldn't she had expected that? But the girl actually wanted Adaryn to use her powers? For some reason, she couldn't pass that up. She had never had anyone really want that before. "No, it doesn't effect me when I manipulate and change someone's emotions. Thank God for that."

Eloise hadn't officially asked, but she assumed she would ask soon enough. So Adaryn started to focus on the girl, but waited for her cue to proceed. "If you do want me to go and do this, you don't get any noticeable effects except for some dizziness, but sometimes it doesn't even happen. Depends on the person..." She trailed off, realizing she was talking way too much. Why was she even talking so much, anyway? Adaryn knew she wasn't normally like this...

[emilybuj]

Eloise nodded, as she considered honestly letting Adaryn give it a shot. She didn't have a whole lot to lose. The girl seemed shocked that Ella was considering it. "People usually hate it when you mess with their feelings, don't they?" Ella asked. "Well... I guess it is an odd thing to want, but we're both in pretty odd situations."

Ella got up, and went to sit on top of her desk, facing Adaryn. "People hate me for my power too. They don't like the idea of anybody messing with their minds or their emotions... it's a personal thing I guess. But I suppose as somebody who really has no personal thoughts, I barely have my own personal thoughts or emotions. So... I guess I don't care that much."

[Lux]

"I have been screamed at numerous times for accidentally manipulating someone's emotions. Even on the first day, actually... I thought I was helping, but he didn't see it that way..." Adaryn explained. She watched as Eloise stood up and sat herself on top of the desk they shared. She found herself glad it was just the two of them there right now, because she was a bit uneasy about this whole thing. Another person in this room probably wouldn't help.

"Yeah, it is a personal thing. But I would think you would get worse than I have because instead of emotions, it is actual thoughts..." People would probably get more pissed off with someone listening to their thoughts as opposed to having their emotions twisted around. She felt bad for Ella.

"Alright... well this should be quick and easy." Adaryn closed her eyes and seemed to latch onto the emotions radiating off of Eloise with her mind. As soon as she gotten a hold of them, she began to chant in her mind, thinking of something calming as well as the word itself. Be calm...calm...calm... Once Adaryn felt the stress and tension ease away, she opened her eyes and stared at the girl.

"You feeling any better?" Even though she knew it worked, Adaryn still felt the need to ask.

[emilybuj]

Eloise looked at the girl with a slight impressed smile. "Yeah..." she said with a nod. "I do... wow..." She wasn't sure what she expected, but it honestly felt like a load of stress had been thrown off her shoulders in just a matter of moments. "That's actually pretty amazing, you know?" Ella said. She felt really bad that people seemed to dislike and yell at Adaryn because of her power. Clearly it was very useful, especially in Ella's case. El could still hear all the voices, but somehow it angered her less and she was a lot less stressed about it.

"Thank you," Eloise said honestly, feeling relief. "I can't believe somebody would yell at your for helping them like this... I mean if it's that simple to take away stress and anxiety."