Julian & Amara: Telekinetic Overload

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Amara seeks out Julian for advice on how to use his abilities without making the entire room float.


So Amara was getting used to the idea of having a different power set for the moment. She'd snagged herself some blankets so she could sleep without resorting to staying with Lil, and she'd even spent a morning reminding herself how the sun felt against skin that wasn't already hot. But what she wasn't used to at all was keeping a lid on telekinesis. Power control used to be relatively easy for her - the bulk of the work was done by her keeping a lid on her emotions, and usually she was fine.

This was different. She'd find herself reaching for something, only to find it already floating in mid-air. For the moment she'd given up on her workouts, mostly because she found herself using the tk to help her with her weight training without even thinking about it. The final straw for her had been sending a pile of books in her room crashing to the ground when she'd intended on simply packing them into a bag so she could return them to the library. So it was time, she thought, to talk to the person who was used to these powers - a Mister Julian Keller. Which is why she was here, knocking on his door on her first step of trying to hunt him down.

Inside his room, Julian was huddled up in blankets with the lights off. He'd been sleeping in more often since the incident with Callie and the blankets were huddled around himself to keep him from zapping anyone. Groggily he poked his head out the small air opening, "Whozit?!"

"It's Amara," she called out, not opening the door just yet. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. I can come back later, if that's okay?"

Sliding out of bed with his cocoon still wrapped around himself, Julian padded over to the door and attempted to open it with his telekinesis before realizing he actually had to do things manually now. Fumbling with the door knob he swung it wide open and squinted, "Nah, iz fine."

"Thank you." She smiled a little nervously, rubbing her hands against her sides idly. The funny thing around not running hot all the time is that you actually started to do things like get sweaty hands when you were nervous. She'd forgotten about that. "Is everything alright?" She asked with a little bit of a frown, her own worries forgotten when she was greeted with a Julian still wrapped in his blankets.

"Haven't you heard? I'm a walking electric eel," he plopped against the door frame. "Apparently being in a coma kept me from feeling it as my," Julian shrugged, "organs shifted around." Sniffling, he tried to rub his nose only to give himself a slight spark- strangely, it didn't hurt. "What's up?

"Oh." She blinked a moment at that, and glanced down when she realised that she hadn't really given much thought to what Julian must be going through right now. For someone who usually prided herself on being considerate, she wasn't feeling it at this moment. "I was just having a little trouble with the telekinesis and thought I'd see if you had any tips... but really, it's not that big of a problem.

"No, no," he sniffled again, pulling the blankets in tighter around him. "Just...no touchie, okay?"

He motioned for her to come inside, kicking the unsolved pile of Rubik's Cubes aside. "Sorry the place is a mess."

"No touching, right. I promise. And honestly, it's really fine." She glanced around at the mess, carefully stepping her way through it. "I can't imagine you're really feeling up to tidying up right now."

"Something like that," he didn't want to admit that this was what the room usually looked like. "So, you got my teekay...I got Jean-Phillipe's electro-whatever.... Who got your powers?"

Amara would probably not be too surprised, but she was trying to be polite. "It was Crystal." She bit her lip, glancing down at the floor. "I hope she is okay, they have... never been easy powers to live with."

Julian nodded and looked toward the floor, again trying to float one of the puzzle cubes up to himself before bending down and picking it up. "Yeah...so...what trouble are you having?"

"It's just... well, it sounds a little silly. But I keep accidentally doing things? Like I can't keep the powers from trying to help me out. I'll knock things over when I'm trying to reach for them, use them in the gym..." She looked a little sheepish. "It's a different sort of control than I'm used to."

A thought struck Julian, "Yeah- that can get annoying...I used to have problems with that when I was younger. Made it harder to hide the teekay, say...how is your fine motor control?"

"I... don't know?" Amara frowned a little, looking confused. "I mean, I suppose it is okay. I have never had any problems with co-ordination or the like."

That had some interesting ramifications; if Amara could handle herself with mental dexterity, why was he having trouble? "Hmm, and you haven't been having any, um, green goblin problems?"

"... no, nothing like that." Amara wrapped her arms around herself, her confusion not getting any better. "Are these things I should worry about?"

After a moment of thought Julian shook his head, "No, you're usually in control of your emotions.... Let me explain, do you remember a while back when things were getting moved around at night? Someone played tetris with the wood pile, tried to steal Cammie's midnight snack, turned over all the paintings in the mansion and so on?"

Amara smiled a little faintly at that. "Only because I have to be... but yes, I remember that now. That was you?" She breathed a little sigh of relief - if that was the biggest problem she would face while she had these powers, she could deal with that.

"Don't tell anyone," he smirked and sighed, tossing the cube to her. "Hint, if you start having nightmares, I have a basket of those you can put by your door, it..." he made a gesture of uncertainty, "might slow them down." Taking a seat on his bed he drew his coverings closer around himself, "Can you show me?"

"Your secret is safe with me," she replied with a broader smile. She caught the cube, taking a moment to look over it curiously. Rubix cubes were not one of the things that had shown up in Nova Roma. "Thankfully my days of nightmares are behind me, but I may take some just in case. I would not like to disturb Lil's sleep if I can help it." At his last question she nodded, then looked around the room thougtfully. In the end she decided to just try floating the cube she had in her hand - which worked fine, except then everything else around the room around the same size started to float as well. The other cubes strew around the place, some of the clothes, those sorts of things.

Julian raised an eyebrow, "Well that's something you don't see every day." Standing up, he adjusted his blankets to give one of the objects a slight push toward Fred's side of the room. "Did you feel that?"

"Like I said... overcompensating." Amara was used to powers that were all or nothing - there wasn't anything very subtle about her powers. She concentrated for a moment, a few more things floating up to join the other items. She finally shook her head. "Not really."

"Interesting," he stood up and had to stop himself from trying to push things around again. Moving his arms he started to manually push things around, "When I've used my powers its always been tactile, maybe they're still developing or something, but this might be something to talk to Nathan about." Julian flushed slightly, wondering if his powers would ever come back, "He's the expert with TeeKay around here."

Amara nodded, letting everything drop, trying to make sure she didn't bump Julian with them. "That's not a bad idea... I hope the swap isn't permanant, but I should learn how to use these powers as best as possible while I have them." Amara wasn't in the habit of lying, she hated dishonesty, but that was a lie. She liked not having her own powers, so the swap being permanent would only bother her given the discomfort and problems experienced by others.

"Yeah, you and me both, I keep zapping stuff and," he exposed his bandaged hand from under the blanket, "blew up my computer."

"Oh no!" Amara chuckled softly, as much as it wasn't particularly funny. "I have had to find weather appropriate clothes, I find it quite odd being able to feel the variations in temperature. I am only glad that this didn't happen in winter, I am sure this would be even worse with snow on the group."

Julian chuckled, getting up from his bed again, "I'm from California, I definitely know what you mean. I got here in the middle of winter- didn't have..." he pulled a coat from the closet, "one of these." Keller held the coat out to her, "Here, you can barrow it while you're getting adjusted."

"Brazil, myself. Even before my powers, it did not get particularly cold." She blinked a moment when Julian handed her the coat, and she took it with a broad smile. "Thank you Julian, that's very kind of you. If there's anything I can do to help you out... please, let me know."

A slight hint of blush to his cheeks, Julian averted his gaze and nodded, "You're welcome, Amara. And unless you happen to have a lightning rod somewhere around, I'm afraid there's nothing right now." He paused, "Go see Nathan and he'll get you straightened out."

"Not at hand, no. But let me know if things change, yes?" Amara didn't really like not being able to help someone - but honestly, there really wasn't much she could do in the situation at the moment. "And I will, certainly. Thank you for your help as well."