You And I Walk A Fragile Line [open]

[lucia marie newman.]

The woods were eerie at night, she admitted, but there was a sort of beauty to it. The moon hung high over head, a silver globe against the velvety darkness of the sky. The autumn leaves were turned silver, dancing in the light October breeze. Some people would probably find it creepy, being out at nine o'clock in the night, wandering around in the woods out by the Academy, but she wasn't "some people". While she had no fondness for the dark, she always stayed within seeing distance of the school. The lights comforted her, and, being a typical teenager, she always had her cell phone on her. So if something really bad happen, there was very little chance that she'd end up hurt or anything like that. She doubted anything harmful could happen at the Academy - it was one of the safest places out there. At least, for her.

Lucia brushed back a strand of red-blonde hair from her face, burying her face deeper inside of the scarf she wore. She could see her breath in the crisp autumn air, and knew that she probably should be inside. It was cold outside, and the teachers were a bit sketchy about students being out in the dark. While Lucia knew that she could take care of herself - she had taken karate classes since she was four, and could probably kill you with a credit card - she could understand that they worried. But while she hated the darkness, she found the woods soothing. Away from people, away from the constant chatter, the constant drama, the constant emotions that pushed on her every single day, the ones she could never get away with even if she tried.

The blonde girl hugged her arms around her chest, snorting slightly. Okay, normally Lucia wasn't nearly this depressive. But lately it was harder to be around people than normal, and finally, she just had to get out. She loved the woods, and had often taken to studying out here. In the winter it was different, so she was spending as much time as she could in her favourite place. Lucia sighed, coming to a halt in front of an old oak. She rested one gloved hand on it fondly, looking up at the scant leaves. "You're tired too, aren't you old fellow?" she said fondly, breath hanging in the air. Lucia was exhausted. The constant headache was pounding in her temple, even though she had distanced herself from the school. The girl sat on the ground, leaning up against the oak and closed her eyes, the rough bark of the wood strangely comforting. "Finally, peace at last..."

Word count: 426
Outfit: Seen above
Tagged: open!
Others: Nope!

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[abraham kip winters.]

His bare feet skittered damp leaves about on the floor of the forest. It was cold, but not, in Abe's opinion, cold enough. It was biting cold, too, and not refreshing cold. Regardless, it didn't stop him from sweeping his feet about, hopping spontaneously here and there so that he movement between the trees was swift, and almost spritely. This peculiar impression was amplified by the way his arms moved. They were raised to the sides, but bent at the elbow, and as he passed certain trees and stumps and shrubs he would touch them for the briefest of moments, as if just to make sure they were really there. He was wearing a baggy, button-down white shirt, and the sleeves were too long for his arms so that the wide cuffs hung over his hands and whipped about as he moved his arms in circles, carving strange shapes in the air as he moved through the forest.

"Go to bed first, a golden purse;" The teenager muttered lightly to himself as he moved, his deep blue eyes staring up at the towering trees overhead. He was smiling the unearthly smile of his that gave his peers the 'creeps'.
He gave another little hop over a tree root, and circled tightly around a thick trunk.
"Go to bed second, a golden pheasant;" He continued to chant to himself, and became dimply aware of a presence nearby. It barely registered with his mind. Even so, he half-stumbled and half-danced closer to the presence, though he didn't look at who it was. Instead he was now staring straight up at the twinkling stars in the sky. He reached up an arm as if trying to pluck them from their resting place on the infinite blue canvas.
"Go to bed third, a golden bird." He finished, having long ago lost any idea of why the old nursery rhyme was relevant.

Coming to a shaky stop, the boy sighed contentedly and looked around to see who it was that was sitting at the foot of a tree.
Upon seeing the girl, who was wrapped up tightly as if she might catch her death, he laughed a little, a forced sound, and faint, and spoke.
"Aren't you cold?" He queried quietly in his prominent English accent, he himself wearing only his baggy shirt, the top two buttons of which were undone, and his faded jeans.

((Welcome to the site! Unfortunately, your first thread has been targetted by Abe the Unstable. As a disclaimer, it may leave you slightly baffled and/or disturbed. You should be aware that not all students of Power's Academy are quite as... eccentric as Abe. Don't be put off by what follows XD))

[lucia marie newman.]

A voice, a presence, an emotion caught her attention, though she didn’t immediately open her eyes. She was exhausted, and opening her eyes right this second seeemed impossible. A chronic insomniac, she didn’t often get very much rest. And when she did, her sleep was filled with nightmares about her past. So sleep was a rare thing for this girl. Also, she tended to worry too much, and carried the full weight of her sister’s disappearance on her shoulders. She knew Rosie wasn’t dead through their bond as twins, but that didn’t comfort her. The two of them were twins, and had been inseparable. Rosie had been the only one whose emotions hadn’t hurt her. The fact that she wasn’t here disturbed her. Lucia knew that it wasn’t wise to fall asleep out here – the cold was already seeping through the light jacket she had tossed on – but could help but want relaxation.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

An almost bemused presence made itself known seconds before a question cut through the autumn air. Lucia mentally groaned, and braced herself for an emotional mind screw. Blue eyes opened and she tilted her head back to look at the boy standing next to her tree. The laughter was strange, but it took a lot to creep her out. She raised one eyebrow at him and thought about the question before answering. “The question is, are you cold?” She cocked her head to one side; much like a dog would, looking critically at the boy. He was bare foot, wearing only jeans and a t-shirt. Yet, he asked her if she was cold.

Yep, she had a strange one here folks.

Not that she was one to talk. She was the girl who thought too much, spent too much time reading, and learned others emotions like the back of her hands. The girl brought her knees to her chest, regarding the boy through those crystalline blue eyes. She hadn’t expected to run into anyone this night, but now that someone was here, he had caught her complete attention. She didn’t recognize him, but that meant very little. She normally kept pretty much to herself, though did have friends. He looked to be about her age, and she brushed a strand of blonde hair from her face. A stray leaf floated down from above and landed gently in her hair, though she ignored it as she spoke.

“What are you doing out here?” she asked, her own German accent softening her words.

((Why, thank you. xD And I am fully prepared to be baffled/confused - I'm not sure about Lucia though. Oh well, she needs to be confused every once and a while. It's good for her. xD))

[abraham kip winters.]

Instead of an answer, Abe found his own question turned back at him. He considered it, since he had asked it without much forethought, and then shook his head decidedly.
"Nope." He said. "I'm just toasty."
The boy flinched suddenly, as if he had been flicked about the ear, and stared into the air beside his head with a look of wonder. There was nothing there, but he watched the space as if it held something quite unique.

He was snapped out of his stupour by a second question, and he looked back to the girl with the tree. She wanted to know what he was doing out here. It was a fair question, and one that might take a bit of working at before a real answer could be fathomed.
He began to walk slowly to the side, keeping his wide eyes on her as he moved.
"A pertinent question!" He exclaimed, as apparently he had no respect for the stillness of the night, "Well, the answer could lead us to many different areas. For instance, perhaps I'm a werewolf. That would be scary, wouldn't it?"
He continued to tread the cold ground, coming around in a circular motion until he disappeared behind the tree that the girl was sitting at.
"No, that can't be it," His voice said, from somewhere behind, "It's not a fool moon. Foolish..."
His head peered around the edge of the tree, looking down at her where she sat. Then, quick as a flash, his hand appeared and stole the leaf that had landed in her hair a few moments ago. Having retrieved his prize, the teenager bounded away, coming to a stop a few feet away.
He held the leaf in both hands, as one might a delicate ornament.
"I wonder..." He said, quietly, "If it hurts to fall off a tree, when you're a leaf. They've got no bones to break, but severing ties is never a pretty thing."
He laid the leaf on the palm of his hand, and then blew at it, sending it flying off into the air. He watched it go, contentedly, and then seemed to remember he had company, and spun around in his heel to face her again.
"Oh!" He said, "Don't be that way... what was it..." He squeezed his eyes shut tight then in concentration and lines appeared on his forehead as he searched his mind for something.
"I'm getting Lucy... Lucia, was it? Yes, that sounds more like it."

[lucia marie newman.]

Yep, a weird one all right. Not that it bothered her. Actually, all the normies - that's Lucia speak for normal people - were slightly annoying. They didn't know how to have fun. While she wasn't crazy - well, at least, not medically crazy - she thought the uptight people were strange. Rosie had been the serious one of the twins. Lucia? Well, she was the type who would poke fun at the devil himself, if she could. She viewed the boy with one raised eyebrow as she waited for his answer.

He was toasty? How could that... That was so unfair. Lucia shook her head, not in negation, but in amusement. “Winter must be nice for you, if you're toasty all the time,” she remarked. She hated being cold. HATED it. When he suddenly looked around, she followed his gaze, mildly puzzled, but she didn't question it. After all, she had some strange habits too.

“A werewolf, hmmm? Well, traditional books on mythology say that werewolves could transform whenever they want, so theoretically, you could be one.” she looked dubiously at the boy. It wasn't that she didn't believe in werewolves or Fae or anything like that – after all, she possessed an ability that some would deem “magical”. Not that she'd actually say that. But she hadn't seen a werewolf before, so she didn't really buy it. Nevertheless, she raised an eyebrow. “And even if you were a werewolf, what would you be doing out here?” She was addressing the empty air at this point, as the boy had disappeared behind the tree. But she was curious. Why was a bare foot teenager doing out in the woods? Never mind the fact that she, too, was in the woods.

When he came back around, he had plucked a leaf from her hair, and was holding it like a baby bird. Lucia moved gracefully to her feet, picking up one of the scarlet leaves on the ground, holding it up. She also studied it, before saying in an equally quiet voice, “I don't know. But I think the tree would be glad to shed his leaves, the dear old fellow. It must be a lot of weight.” Lucia patted the trunk of the tree fondly, blue eyes catching the moonlight as she smiled. She leaned against the tree, watching the other teenager as he blew the leaf away. She twirled her own leaf in between her fingers, lost in her own thoughts, when he sudden exclaimed.

Lucia's face lit up when he said her name. She wasn't shy, but she didn't make herself the centre of attention. “Yep, that's what I'm called. And you're...” she frowned, brows drawing together. “Abe, right?” she asked, cocking her head to one side, curiously.

[abraham kip winters.]

Abe smiled his not-quite-there smile at her again.
"When it suits me." He admitted. He decided that he quite liked this person. She seemed to be humouring him, or at least not shunning him like a large percentage of the school would have been under these circumstances. He was impressed that she knew his name, and since they had never met, she must have found and remembered it through normal methods. That was even more impressive than remembering it from a dream. He was quite sure that most of the things he remembered were from dreams.

When Lucia cocked her head to one side, Abe did the same, like a weird mirror-image. It wasn't out of mocking - it seemed to be an unconscious action - but he stood quite as she did and stared back at her.
"I think it's more important about what you're doing out here." He said eventually, "Yes, I think that matters. Unless inside is actually outdoors. And that would make outside inside. It's too cold indoors, I came outside for some air."
He breathed in a lungful of fresh night air.
"Maybe it's because of your power," He went on, beginning to walk again, this time in a straight line. When he reached the end of his line, he turned around and came back again, and repeated this action. "That you're out here. I'm out here because of mine."

He suddenly collapsed back to the ground, and shifted himself around until he was lying comfortably on his back on the forest floor. He didn't seem to know what to do with himself. It was as if he was on a combination of caffeine and hallucinogenic drugs. At least, that was what the look in his faraway eyes would lead one to believe.
"What a piece of work is a man," He said to himself, flinging a lazy arm over his eyes as if in a dramatic expression of woe, "How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god... I'm not long for this world!" He called out, apparently to no-one in particular, "Beam me up, Scotty!"

[lucia marie newman.]

Lucia leaned back against the tree, the rough wood, giving him a smile in return. While she wasn't unfriendly to anyone or anything like that, she didn't have very many friends. She had long since distanced herself from others, more out of self-preservation than anything else. Getting close to people meant she felt their emotions sharper, and that wasn't something she wanted to do. The draw back was that she was incredibly lonely. Even if Abe was a bit strange, that didn't really matter. She wasn't malicious by nature, and Abe was friendly enough. “You're a funny one, aren't you?” she said with a laugh.

When he mirrored her, she kept her head tilted, a quizzical look on her face. His logic was whacky, but that didn't mean very much. “If indoors is outdoors, the human race has been very confused. Would that also mean that the ceiling is actually the sky and vice verse?” The question was a serious one, and she was distracted from moping because of it. Heading towards a psych majour, she learned that reality was all dependant on the person. An interesting bit of theory was that if someone truly didn't believe in gravity, then it simply didn't exist for them. Lucia shook the thought away as he spoke again.

“Very good observation, I applaud you.” Lucia said, clapping her gloved hands. “I am indeed out here because of my power. But why would you be out here?” she asked, curious. She didn't know what his power was, and even if she did, it would really affect her. Sleep wasn't exactly her thing lately, shown by the dark circles under her eyes, and the weariness of her face.

Lucia sat next to him on the ground when he flopped down. She smiled at his quote. “Shakespeare's Hamlet. Very nice.” She shook her head. “To be, or not to be, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? To die, to sleep, no more; and by a sleep to say we end.” Her words had a particular melodious tone to it that one had when they were reciting. She glanced at him. “From Shakespeare to Star Trek. You, my friend, are well versed.” And she actually meant it, too.

[abraham kip winters.]

As Lucia recited a passage for herself, Abe still held his arm over his eyes, so that his reaction could not properly be seen. However, a smile made its way onto his face upon hearing the words. After the quotation, the girl made a comment about him. He barely perceived it, but gave a weak laugh at it anyway. Then he fell completely silent.

Lying motionless and sightless on the ground, he became aware of the sensation of falling, as if he'd jumped from a high building. The smile on his face disappeared as he remembered what usually came after a long fall - a sudden stop. His body visibly tensed up in anticipation.

Then cold air rushed over him and Abe jolted suddenly up into a sitting position, his eyes no longer smiling strangely, but wide in confusion and surprise. Like a person awoken from a nightmare, he stared about at the darkness of the forest quite as if he'd never been there before.

"What--?" He muttered to himself, still glancing about in somewhat of a panic, "How did I get here? What am I--?"
He clamped his arms tightly around his torso and shivered violently.
"Jesus it's cold..."
His startled eyes fell onto his bare feet. Why was he barefoot in the forest? It made no sense! Had he-

He looked up and realised he was not alone. There was a girl standing against a tree.
"Who are you?" He demanded, hurrying to get to his feet, only to find that having the ground underneath them made them feel even colder. He shivered again, tightening his arms around him for some measure of warmth in the cold night air. "Did you take my shoes?"
He clasped his hands to his head, clearly in some degree of distress.
"Ugh!" He moaned, "This doesn't make sense... I was indoors a second ago, it was just starting to get dark, and I was reading, and now I'm here with nothing on my feet...?" He glanced back up at the girl. "What's going on?" He asked, desperate to fill in the blank space that had suddenly appeared in his mind.

[lucia marie newman.]

Lucia was watching the sky when the sudden change came over Abe, so she didn't quite know what happened. She acknowledged the laugh with a quick smile, but had kept her eyes up on the stars. Ever since she was a little kid she had been fascinated with the sky. She wondered why everything was the way it was, and how long they had been that way. They twinkled down at her, and she hadn't been paying enough attention to Abe to quite know what was going on. One minute he was calm, the next minute, he freaked.

Blue eyes stared at him as if he had grown an extra head. At first, Lucia thought this was some sort of odd joke. Her face hardened slightly – she had had jokes played on her before, and if this was another one, she was going to be most unhappy. But she felt the genuine confusion and alarm coming from the boy, and she glanced at him warily. Sighing, she stripped off her coat and threw it at him, having on a jacket so she wouldn't freeze. “Of course it's cold, it's October. I don't know how you got out here.” she told him, face paling at the force of his panic.

The blonde girl got to her feet again, leaning up against the tree again for support. This was why she didn't go around people. His distress was making it hard for her to see, the force of it like a weight on her head. But somehow, she managed to speak calmly, though strained. “Of course I didn't steal your shoes, I have my own,” she said, pointing at her tennis shoes. “And my name's Lucia Newman. I got to the school.” she added helpfully, brushing hair out of her pale face. She wrapped her arms around her waist, both against the cold and an unconscious action to protect herself.

“I don't know, honestly. I was out here walking, and happened to meet you over there.” She said, pointing to where they had first met. “I don't know anything else, I'm sorry.”

[abraham kip winters.]

How confusing. It seemed this girl, this Lucia Newman, was really nothing to do with his current situation. She seemed to be an innocent bystander in all of this. He would have felt sorry for her, but at the moment he was too concerned with his own problems. When the coat was thrown to him he wasn't too proud to thank her and wrap it around himself. He was only wearing a thin shirt and his jeans. Clearly, he hadn't been planning to go out for a stroll that evening.

At the new information Lucia gave him, he sighed wearily. He had an idea of what he was doing out here. He just hoped he was wrong.
"I'm sorry." He started, beginning to attempt to calm himself down. "It's kind of scary when a couple of hours of your life just vanish. And I'm sorry if I did or said anything to you..." He wasn't sure quite what he was apologising for, but if this random blackout was from the cause of what he thought it was, he might have done anything during his time wondering the forest. It seemed that cold feet could be the least of his worries.

He looked about again, staring at the trees around them.
"Are we... are we far from the Academy?" He asked, and then noticed that he hadn't actually introduced himself, only accused Lucia of stealing his shoes. "Oh, I'm Abe by the way." He said, still too stunned to summon a smile to his face. "Abe Winters. Or did you already know that? He probably used my name..."
He placed a hand against his mouth, the look of troubled concern wearing deep on his expression. His eyes scanned the ground, as if he was trying to work out a difficult mathematical question in his head.

[lucia marie newman.]

If Abe thought he was confused, he should've seen Lucia. The poor girl was pretty much as lost as Abe was, only she didn't feel just her confusion, but his as well. It was obvious he wasn't joking, like she previously thought, but honestly alarmed. The girl slowly relaxed again. It wasn't like he had hurt her or anything of the sort, just confused her. Which, she had to admit, wasn't hard to do. But this hadn't been the strangest thing that had happened to her yet, so she tried to take it in stride. She just wished he would calm down, before she ended up with a migraine.

“Don't worry about it, really.” she said, shaking her head. She walked over to him, feet making no noise on the ground, coming to a halt a foot or so from him. She sighed and ran a gloved hand through her curls. “Yeah, I understand. I've had it happen to me. A lot.” Albeit, hers was normally was she was propelled into unconsciousness, but it was the same difference. “And you didn't do anything to me, really,” she said, offering him a smile. “Confused me, yes. But you didn't hurt me or anything.” she assured him.

Lucia shook her head at his question, half-turning to point towards the distant lights of the Academy. She made sure she could always see those lights, just in case she somehow got herself into trouble. “No, we aren't. It's about a fifteen, twenty minute walk to the Academy from here.” She glanced at him when he introduced himself. “I know who you are – I've seen you around before.” she explained. At the mention of “he”, her brow furrowed, and she reached out and touched his arm, something she rarely did. Touching in general was unusual for her, but even as he glanced down at the ground, she couldn't help herself. “Are you okay?" concern laced her words, and she titled her head to look up at him.

[abraham kip winters.]

Abe didn't notice Lucia look up at him. Indeed, he didn't seem to notice her touching his arm, as he was looking with such intensity at the ground that he might have been able to see right through it. He must have heard her question, however, because after a pause he replied.
"No," He muttered, barely audible even in the quiet of the forest. "I'm afraid I don't think I am..."

He spent a few more seconds with a heavy concern weighing upon him, before shook his head, snapping himself out of it.
"But it could be worse." He said, trying to put his usual positive spin on whatever it was he was talking about, "I've handled it before. I'm sure I can handle it again..." As he talked he walked a few feet forward, away from her touch, though it wasn't an evasive maneuver, he was just walking through his thoughts. "Although, of course, the circumstances... there's a lot more at risk this time..." He went on, as he walked. When he stopped, he turned around again so that he was facing her. Then he took a step to the side.
"I'm going to have to be even more clever this time." He continued, and took two more steps forward. It was evident, at this point, that he seemed to be thinking of his body as a piece on a chess board, and was moving from square to square as he evaluated his thoughts accordingly. "Cleverer than I've ever been before. And that's pretty clever, if I do say so myself. And I need to do it quickly, before it gets out of hand and it's too late. Oh..."
He hopped diagonally a space.
"This is going to be the first of many a sleepless night for me, I think."

He remembered suddenly that he was actually talking to another person, and looked back to Lucia.
"Ah, yes, Lucia Newman." He said, "Academy attendee. Innocent bystander. You know the thing about innocent bystanders is they have a tendency to become casualties of war." He clapped his hands together, which was one of the things he did when he was deciding something. "So, in that spirit, I think it would be best for you... to..." He thought, and then pointed at himself. "Forget that I was here. Pretend this didn't happen. And if I start burning things or hurting people, stay clear until they expel me from the Academy." He nodded, as if that was supposed to be reassuring. "That's the worst-case-scenario, mind you. I've got some fight in me yet."

[lucia marie newman.]

Lucia watched Abe, curious, but silent. He was worried about something, though she couldn't figure out for the life of her what. It was like he was a completely different person. He was concerned about something, and it was heavy enough for the migraine she already had to begin pounding behind her eyes. She didn't say anything, though, just let him talk it out. Because, honestly, she didn't quite know what was going on. He obviously wasn't okay, but she didn't know what was wrong.

And that didn't sit well with her.

She watched him move about, leaning up against her tree, pale face curious. When he turned and addressed her, she raised an eyebrow. He was warning her, now, was he? A frown furrowed her brows and she folded her arms across her chest. “No,” she said firmly. “No, I don't think I will.” Perhaps she was being stupid. Actually, that was more than likely. Despite her genius level IQ, she tended to make stupid decisions. But Lucia wasn't the type to back down from a challenge, whether she really understood the events or not. “You're concerned and worried. Innocent bystander or not, now that you've got me worried, I'm afraid you gotten me involved.”

Lucia pushed herself off the tree, moving to stand in front of him. He was taller than she was – but the again, that wasn't very hard with her five foot stature. She had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes, and when she did so, she smiled. “If you start burning things, it may or may not be interesting. But you're obviously worried about something, and maybe I can help.” Never mind the fact that some of her motivation was so that the wave of sickness burdening her would end, but she did want to help Abe. She stuck her hands in her jeans pockets, head tilting to one side as she waited his reaction.

[abraham kip winters.]

Watching her with an almost scientific curiosity, Abe then raised a finger pointedly.
"Shouldn't have said anything, should I?" He asked. Lucia seemed to be an interesting character... but it was because of an interesting character that he was in this compromising position in the first place. No, that wasn't fair. What was happening to him now was the result of six years of karma piling up against him. Still, his faith in other people had been shaken, and he was less than enthusiastic at the concept of involving another Power's student in this mess.

"Alright." Abe said finally, hopping back a space (apparently adjusting his strategy based on the new addition). "But you should know that you are getting yourself into a dangerous business that most people, even at this particular academy, would describe as 'weird'. I have nothing for you to sign to guarantee your safety, either. And!" He stepped forward again so that they were at their original distance apart. "You can't tell anyone. This fight, this war... is a secret one."

That detail declared, he moved away again, and walked in a little circle, tugging at his chin with his fingers thoughtfully as he decided how to approach the task of explaining his predicament. He seemed to decide, because he eventually turned back to look at Lucia again.
"I have an evil brother whom I locked away in my dreams for six years and whom now through no fault of my own is free and wants to take over my physical form." He rattled this out as if he were describing something as plain as the weather. "If he succeeds in doing so, as I fear he might, he will doubtless go about on a rampage to spend six years worth of angst causing mass chaos. Not to mention, if he gets into my physical form, thus taking my place in the waking world, the only place for me to take is his, meaning I will be trapped in dreams as he has been. As fond as I am of dreams, that is not an experience I wish to..." He frowned, suddenly running out of words. "...experience."
He shortly waved his hands in the air. He was very expressive with his gestures.
"Anyway, since he still currently resides in my subconscious, the only way I can confront him is by entering the Dreamscape, but when I do so, I run the risk of letting him be the one to wake up in my body. Hence, I am unable to sleep until I've planned a plan."

He clasped his hands together and looked to Lucia, apparently preparing to gauge her reaction to the news.

[lucia marie newman.]

Lucia was surprised that he actually relented – she hadn't actually expected him to let her help him. She leaned back against her tree, smiling slightly to herself as she listened to him talk. What he was saying was by no means funny. It was down right... well... what he said. Weird. She thought back to her own sister. Rosie had been her twin, and while she didn't know the experience of having two people in one body, she knew that the connection must be strong for that to happen.

Lucia briefly wondered what Abe's “evil brother” had done to get locked away in Dreamscape. Actually, she wondered how Abe had managed to lock said brother away. But she didn't ask any questions as he spoke, preferring to keep silent. Her face was thoughtful, not condemning, and her mind whirled with the information she was given. When he fell silent, she pushed herself off the tree, nibbling on her bottom lip as she paced before him, blue eyes serious. She finally came to a halt in front of him, looking up once more.

“I swear that I won't tell anyone. I can swear a blood oath, if you want. I'm guessing you don't want anyone else involved, do you?” she smiled a bit self-deprecatingly. “But I'm empathic, I can't help feeling your concern and wanting to help. As for danger, well.... I've been in plenty of danger before, and obviously survived.” Not without battle scars. It wasn't hard for her to get close to people just because she was empathic. Once bitten, twice shy, all that. Lucia shrugged a bit, shaking her head. “That, and I've put myself in danger before. One more time won't hurt.”

Though her words were flippant, she turned serious as she pondered his plight. “It sounds like you're the only one who can really stop him,” she said quietly, though her voice was loud in the night. She chewed on her bottom lip before straightening her shoulders and looking at him. “So, what can I do to help, Abe?”