liar, liar

Scarlett Niles, eighteen year old mutant with the power of portal creation. If you need something that's not exactly permitted on school property, I can help you out. For a price.

[liviasummers]

Livia couldn’t help but crack a smile at the girl’s alternate suggestions. “I suggested he possess her boyfriend and tell her himself, but he didn’t seem so on board with the idea. Sort of a shame they all have so many abilities, but they choose to ask me for help instead.” She shook her head in mock disappointment. “No, no ghost money, unfortunately. Spirits don’t have many possessions other than what was immediately on their person the moment they passed. And even if they did have money when they died, it’d be completely invisible to any normal naked eye and would only make me look more crazy than I already do. Actually, I’m sort of looking for someone. Every once in a while, there’ll be a ghost that has the ability to travel and agrees to help me find her. Unfortunately for Mr. Harrington, he doesn’t possess that ability.” Livia stepped up onto the chair for just enough time to secure her end of the chart with a couple of pushpins before nodding her thanks. ”Ghost stories?” Livia repeated with an amused smile. “Oh, I’ve got plenty. I was thinking of turning my middle school diary into a horror film, actually,” she joked, though her experiences could easily be mistaken for a Stephen King novel.

[scarlettniles]

"Possessing the boyfriend, classic ghost dad material." Scarlett rolled her eyes, but paused when thinking about ghost abilities. What exactly did those entail? She didn't know much about ghosts, personally, mostly because it had always freaked her out too much to find out about them, but hearing someone living talk about it was a lot less scary than reading about it at midnight. "So what can they do? Other than possessing people and harassing mediums." When the chart was up and in no danger of falling off the wall, Scarlett stepped down off the chair she was stood on and sat on it instead, folding one leg over the other and resting her chin in the palm of her hand. "So...you're looking for a ghost person or a real person?" She sat straight at the mention of the middle school diary, eyes practically lighting up. "Do you still have it? The diary. And can I read it? I mean, if it's a middle school diary then that was a while ago so...wouldn't really matter if I did read it. Only in it for the ghost stories, not the embarrassing pre-teen girl crush stories."

[theartfulthatcher-blog]

Though he did his best to maintain a poker face, the fact of the matter was that Thatcher was very newly nine; he had about as much composure in the face of potential gore as a Mormon housewife stumbling onto a homoerotic film set might. 

Eyes widening, the boy’s narrow shoulders went utterly still for a moment before he let out a breath and grinned tentatively.

"That’s incendiary,” Thatcher chirped. He paused, narrowing his eyes slightly as he raised a warning hand toward the girl. “But don’t do it to me, okay? I need my brain for world domination.”

[scarlettniles]

Scarlett had no idea what incendiary meant, but judging by the look on Thatcher's face it wasn't something too bad. Really she couldn't believe that he'd taken her words as truth -- not that it was exactly lying, there probably was the possibility of taking people's brains out of their heads with portals, and it might even have been possible to create the illusion of it coming out of the ears. Either way she hadn't exactly been trying to convince him, though she supposed kids were always more easily convinced of things than others. 

Her eyebrow quirked upwards at the mention of world domination, tilting her head to the side, questioning. "Oh, really? And how exactly are you planning world domination? Because if its a good enough plan maybe I'll even lend my brain liquidising services, as long as I can have my own country to rule over."

[liviasummers]

"I wish he was just an annoying ghost, but as per usual, my luck is operating below par. The secretary is Mr. Harrington’s daughter; he wants me to ‘make things right’ with her or something. I, for one, don’t take kindly to requests from strangers unless they have a decent sob story. Or can give me something in return. And Mr. Harrington is unable to give me what I require in return, he said himself that he can’t leave here, he-" For a moment, Livia became aware of the excessive amount of words coming out of her mouth. Why was she telling her all this? Silence took her over as she bent to pick up the pushpins that had fallen to the floor along with the chart before joining the girl. She gave a simple nod in return to her question. “I’m Miss Summers, the new Latin teacher. And you are?”

[scarlettniles]

"Can't he just like...write in some mirror fog or blow some papers around and get the message across to her himself? Probably take forever but it'd be a labour of love, or whatever. And maybe freak his daughter out for a while but still." Scarlett paused for a second and tilted her head, questioning. "What do you get in return from ghosts, exactly? I can't really imagine they have...ghost money that can be used in the real world. Or do they? That'd be cool." Her hands found the edges of the chart as she held her end up, pushing the pins into the edges of the paper. "I'm Scarlett. I don't take Latin so...probably won't see much of me in here after this, I guess. Unless you have any cool ghost stories to tell."

[theartfulthatcher-blog]

Pausing mid-step, Thatcher adjusted his hold on the innocent shoebox in his hands and twisted his torso so that he could eye the girl sitting a few feet away. Nose scrunching up, the boy shuffled a bit closer, narrow shoulders rolling back as he lofted a brow in consideration. 

"Is that your ability?" Thatcher asked. He didn’t much believe in making polite small talk and introductions, while useful, often wasted valuable time. "Changing the molecular structure of brain matter?"

[scarlettniles]

Scarlett paused and blinked at the boy. It was always sort of a surprise to see him wandering around the halls, as young as he was, and she always momentarily mistook him for a particularly short first year. "Uh, yeah. I liquidise brains and make them come out of noses. Sometimes ears too. Maybe even popping out of the eyeballs on a good day."

[dxgny]

"Redford woman’s." Dagny slowly began to smirk. "It was not— er, unwarranted. Also Dagny did not mean to actually, er, break the fingers. It just happened.” She didn’t feel bad about it though; the woman had kicked up such a damn fuss afterwards, even as Dagny tried to reassure her that they were only broken. At least they were still there and not, instead, on the floor. That apparently hadn’t helped. “Yes… this Dagny did not understand… Scarlett was scared… for others…”

[scarlettniles]

Scarlett snorted; she should have known it was Holly of all people, though she might have guessed someone like Fat Sam or Peter Pedro instead. They often deserved broken fingers. "So your day wasn't all bad then." She rolled her eyes but she was smiling, though she made a face when beginning to talk about her own earlier situation. "Yeah, I kept thinking that if my feet touched the floor then people would die. And not like Bob McGee on the other side of the world but people I actually cared about. Which makes no sense but at the time I was so certain about it."

[liviasummers]

"I was talking to Mr… Harrington…" Livia began but trailed off. The last thing she wanted was to be known as the crazy teacher that talked to imaginary people. "Let me start over. I’m a medium and I was conversing with Mr. Harrington, a staff member who died in the eighties, because he refused to leave me alone and let me focus. Does that make it any less… weird?" Her gaze followed toward where the girl had pointed, right back at the chart. "Would you? I mean, if it’s not a bother."

[scarlettniles]

Scarlett nodded slowly at the explanation; her initial thought about ghosts had been right after all. She had to wonder who Mr Harrington was though, and why he was still hanging around the school -- usually ghosts only stuck around places if they had unfinished business, as far as she knew. "Right. Definitely less weird. What did Mr Harrington want? Or was he just sort of bugging you because he's an annoying ghost or something?" When the offer of help was accepted she stepped into the room and made her way over, grabbing a chair on the way so she'd be able to reach the right height on the wall for the chart. Her eyes scanned the chart as she picked up one end of it, only recognising half the words on it. "Do you teach a language?"

[liviasummers]

During the power loss, Livia had had plenty of time to rearrange and redecorate her new classroom- it was even a bit calming. But ever since the power negators were shut off, the spirits of Morgana have seemed to flock toward her, ending her short-lived focus. Standing on a chair, she was attempting to hang up a chart of Latin noun cases, but the man behind her was still blabbing about some mistake that he made that she was supposed to “right”. The chart dropped to the floor as she stepped off the chair, sending the man a stare that could kill. If he wasn’t already dead, that is. “For the thousandth time-“

It was then that she stopped short, catching sight of someone in the doorway. “I, um..” By the time she glanced back toward where the dead man was standing, he was already gone. “…look completely and utterly insane. I’m sorry, did you need something?” Livia asked awkwardly, glancing back toward the person at the door.

[scarlettniles]

It wasn't the first time Scarlett had come across someone talking to themselves in an empty classroom. She'd just been passing the doorway when the woman spoke, and a confused frown had grown on her face when she realised she wasn't talking to her -- which meant she was probably talking to herself, since there wasn't anyone else around. Or ghosts. Ghosts was also an option.

Scarlett's eyebrow rose when the woman turned and noticed her presence, shrugging at the question. "No, not really. I heard you talking and I thought you were talking to me because...there's nobody else here. But, uh, apparently not." She paused for a second, debating asking about ghosts but eventually deciding not to just then.  Her eyes travelled down to the chart, now crumpled on the floor, and she pointed to it. "Do you need help with that?"

[dxgny]

Dagny understood, sort of. That didn’t stop her grumbling at Scarlett’s words, however. "Dagny wanted to hurt them when our powers were taken away—” her brows marred. "They made Dagny almost say things that Dagny did not want to… share.” 

[scarlettniles]

"Didn't you already break someone's fingers?" Scarlett looked at Dagny, some amusement in her eyes. She'd heard about it in passing a couple of days ago and had forgotten to ask the other times she'd seen the blonde woman. "Well...it's over now, anyway. And I'm assuming you didn't actually say anything because you said almost? At least you weren't dangling from a tree fearing for your brother's life instead of your own."

[dxgny]

"Dagny doesn’t understand pranks much well, but what of these pranks Dagny does understand…” She trailed off, forehead creasing with gentle lines. “Could have been dead babies. Magic is too unstable for Dagny’s liking.”

[scarlettniles]

"They're not the most responsible people but I don't think they were trying to hurt people. Well...some of them maybe a little. What I'm trying to say is they don't deserve to be locked up just because of their power." Scarlett paused and shrugged. "That's exactly how a lot of humans look at us, after all. Maybe just a little more magic supervision or something."

[dxgny]

"Dagny has been saying the thing for long time— the magic users are trouble. Should be locked up, like in Hollental.”

[scarlettniles]

"Maybe not locked up. I mean, they didn't destroy crops or kill babies or anything. It was just a prank, even if it was a really annoying one."

[awbuckyno]

by David Leyes

[deliawalker-deactivated20150522]

"Entertainment and the possibility of seeing who goes commando and who wears granny panties. Kinda like Russian Roulette: Panty Edition. Duck duck goose would be fun, if we actually had powers to make it interesting and not just… weird. Murder’s too… big for my books. I was thinking of going around and plantin’ one on some people. See if I can stir up fun. Oh, or egging some stuff. Or spray painting something.

… Maybe all three.”

[scarlettniles]

Scarlett snorted, genuinely amused by the girl's words. "I'm gonna have to try that one when powers are back on. Might make lunch a little less boring. Maybe combine it with mutant duck duck goose for a hybrid of confusing entertainment." She paused for a second before speaking again. "Murder is never too big for anyone, as long as you think big too. Totally don't mean to sound like a serial killer here, but it's true.  Anyway, I fully support you stirring up some fun around here. If you need a wing woman, I'm your girl."

[rossiken]

"You know, the people with telekinesis who de-pantsed people they walked by, or those who would put up invisible force fields and watch others walk into them. Well, now they sound boring compared to yours. I need to hang out where you do so I can watch those things happening."

[scarlettniles]

"Have to be in the right place at the right time. The force field thing is pretty funny though, I've seen people do that a few times. Have you ever seen someone with invisibility move people's stuff around while they're not looking? It's like a slow ageing prank. Has to go on for about twenty minutes and you can see them getting super frustrated the longer it happens. Very satisfying when they finally snap."

[hqdead]

"I wish that I’d won the lottery, but you have to be in it to win it and I haven’t bought a lottery ticket in years, but I should definitely work on that if powers come back, though, I doubt it works that way. For some reason, not having a power has made me chilled, if only you could choose when to switch them off."

[scarlettniles]

"Don't you have precognition? You could be the richest person in the world right now but you're here teaching mutants. Being a teacher when you could be a multi-millionaire on your own island in the Caribbean." Scarlett shook her head like she was disappointed in the woman. "Unbelievable. I guess if you really wanted you could get a blocking bracelet, but I think that'd look a little weird on a teacher. The whole point is that you're supposed to know how to control it by now, I think."

[deliawalker-deactivated20150522]

"You know, not having powers would be so much better if I wasn’t so bored. I actually considered pantsing people, along with… other weird shit. I don’t even like the other weird shit. I need a donut. Or paint.”

[scarlettniles]

"Pantsing people...is not the worst idea I've heard since these blocking things went on. Someone suggested playing duck duck goose the other day. Apparently they were under the impression that we were still in elementary school. As for other weird shit, I'm curious about what they are but a little worried about hearing it. Are you going to tell me you considered murder or something?"

[hqdead]

"I feel great, amazing, in fact."

[scarlettniles]

"Nice that someone does, I guess. Because of not having powers or did you win the lottery or something? If you did I hope you're sharing."

[rossiken]

Rossi raised an eyebrow curiously but couldn’t stop the smile from coming onto her face. “That sounds a lot more exciting then what I was referring to.”

[scarlettniles]

"Really? What were you referring to? Personally I struggle to think of anything that's more entertaining than accidental fires and flying into walls. Maybe accidental freezing, that's always fun."