WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW;; open - power discovery

[trojan g.]

[align=center][div style="max-width: 415px;text-align: justify;font-family: times new roman;font-size: 10pt;line-height: 116%;text-indent: 35px;"]It took Ruven six months to figure out whether or not he had a power. He hadn't thought about it too much before he had come to the Coalition, considering he had never seen a power before, but since then he had been watching those around him. He watched as some picked up dirt with their minds or bend fire to their will by simply staring at it. He had heard of the many different powers that were around on the island, and had seen how some had shifted into different animals in front of his eyes, and it had all amazed him. He had tried to play it cool the best that he could, and had tried to practice different things to figure out whether or not he could do these things without someone noticing, and so far save for a couple of NPC's he had scared into silence using the name of his mother he hadn't been found out yet. He hadn't embarrassed himself in front of his friends... and he hadn't figured out if he had a power yet.

Ruven was by the Hall of the Kings towards the top steps, choosing different things to intensely stare at for the time being, hoping that he could move them by thinking about it, hoping that he would be able to make flowers sprout from the earth or make lightning shoot across the sky, but all he had managed to do thus far was give himself a headache. A sigh left the lion's maw as he began to give up, picking himself up and beginning to walk down the stairs, one by one, until the sudden dropping of water on his body caused him to jump and look around. It had seemed as though some NPC's that he had scared before had come back with water balloons and had decided to pelt the male with them. Shock and anger rose up in the boy's mind and that's when he discovered it, that he had powers, because soon enough he was completely dry and the NPC's were running away soaking wet.

[ARVID R.]

Arvid had wondered himself about powers, once or twice before. Occasionally he had pondered whether or not someone could force themselves to have powers. Through sheer might alone or some kind of experimentation, he wasn't sure, but it was definitely an interesting prospect. The dire wolf had never quite gone to the lengths that Ruven had, but he did occasionally find himself looking at a fire a bit longer than usual, wondering if he could somehow bend the flames to his will. Eventually, though, he had given up on dreams like that. Unless he figured out some sure-fire way to force powers into existence, the only way to get them would be to just... wait. So, while in the process of waiting, he had turned to other methods of making himself powerful. Not only himself, but his fellow wanderers as well, hence his experiments with poison-making. That had kept him pretty content for quite a while, so the subject of powers had honestly slipped his mind. Until now, that is.

The pup had just been wandering around that day, lingering around the Hall of Kings as he looked for anything out of the usual. Any plants he could bring back to his home, or maybe even a chip of those old statues that Sojourn had broken, to claim as a souvenir. He didn't stumble upon either of those, however. Instead, he stumbled upon Ruven, seemingly being harassed by several NPCs that seemed rather bitter about... something. A growl had left Arvid then, and he had opened his maw to shout at them and hopefully run them off, but his help seemingly wasn't needed. His eyes widened in shock as he saw Ruven manipulate the water that had been flung at him, tossing it right back in the faces of those that had thought themselves so funny. As the NPCs fled, Arvid made his way over, muttering with no small amount of shock, "Ruven... you know what you just did, right? You used an elemental power... did you know that you could do that?" Once again, the canine's multicolored gaze seemed to be gleaming with fascination, and excitement. Within mere moments, Ruven had been added on to the mental list of names that Arvid kept an eye on – for research purposes.

i wanna be the sand inside that hourglass

[angelembrace]

"they flip the siren, hit the lights" ✭ ── Much like Arvid, Angel often pondered the idea of having powers, if he would be graced with such a thing, and if there was a way to force them upon himself. Higher abilities seemed to run in his genetic lineage, his mother flaunted her ability to alternate forms based on the species of her current, ah, play thing, and he was certain that she was not the only one. And he was right, though he didn't know it, his grandfather possessed impressive abilities and one of his many half-siblings by the sea had just fallen in line with the gift to prod people's inner thoughts. For Angel, though it may have sounded egotistic, overconfident even, he was certain the question was not if, but when. A matter of waiting patiently, really, which he was very good at doing.

Sneaking around the Hall of Kings was his current objective when the interaction between Ruven and some npcs wielding their aquatic weaponry, frowning at the shattered and headless statues that Sojourn had made short work of. He still had not completely changed his stance on if the dead had any place in the Hall, being remembered and what not, but that actually wasn't why he was there. No, no, Angel was fueling his own ego by vividly picturing his place in the Hall, which was recently discovered to be fantastic free therapy to deal with the festering bitterness that was steadily growing with his mother's words and his own insecurities.

The sound of running and the voice of the direwolf pup broke his focus, stepping away from the shattered stony figures and greeting Ruven and Arvid at the top of the steps. From his vantage point, he could see the running, soaking wet culprits. It wasn't incredibly hard to put 2 and 2 together to figure out the story at hand. "Shame it wasn't something that would leave a mark. They didn't hurt you, did they, Ru?" A brief moment of aggression was followed by a sharp turn into obvious concern, perhaps a little too much given the seemingly harmless circumstance, but he didn't know, he hadn't seen it.

[ASTRAEA CIPHER-LINGRÉ]

[glow=white,1,400]I'M JUST A PUPPET IN YOUR PLAY ! — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

Powers were something normal, though Astraea, unlike Arvid and her half-brother, wasn't quite sure if she wanted powers. They almost seemed to corrupt others, though perhaps she only believed that because everyone she met so far that had powers were... not very nice, to say the least. Not like her. Astraea had heard that the Hall of Kings had been destroyed by Sojourn and honestly, that was why the liliger was making her way over - to see if the rumors were true. Sojourn unnerved her, but surely the Kingpin wouldn't want to try to rewrite history?

As Astraea came over though, she saw NPCs trying to pelt Ruven with water balloons, only for them to be soaked and wet instead. The Cipher girl frowned as she came closer, hearing Angelembrace's comment and recoiling from him. "That wasn't necessary," She mewed, a frown on her face as she stared at Ruven. She confused, maybe even slightly afraid of her clanmate. "All they were doing was trying to play a harmless joke..." It wasn't like they were trying to hit him with rocks or something; water balloons didn't do a lot of harm.[glow=white,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

[LETHE ELD-CIPHER]

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Anthemtalon had somewhat figured out that he, too, possessed powers not that long ago. Slinging around rocks, mostly, which meant he could get a nice perch out of the snow to sunbathe and nap on. Not water, though. Gathering up context clues to come to a conclusion wasn't the lizard's strong suit by any means. Nonetheless, commotion warranted him to waddle over, especially when others were running from... what?

"Soaked," came the simple garble from the simple lizard. Ruven did that? Huh. As long as he wasn't the one getting soaked with water while the weather was cold, Anthem figured that it was fine. If it was scorching hot outside? A different story entirely. Tongue flicked, trying to smile. "Neat."

ANTHEMTALON [] komodo monitor [] tags

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[rhosmari]

"Harmless joke?" The woman seemed to have materialized there, quiet and deadly silent as she assessed the situation herself. She had a hard time being in the Hall of Kings. Despite knowing what she had did she knew she would always see their faces and that they would always be staring back at her. It was almost painful really and the relief she got from destroying the statues had been so short lived. She had been berated by her brother quickly for her decision and she had snapped back like a feral beast to protect herself. Things were bad it would seem between her and her only family. She had no idea where her other siblings were. They had abandoned them too it would seem. Still she did have this, her only son. The only thing with true meaning to her and the one that mattered. Her tail curled lightly as her eyes looked from one child to another.

Taking a deep breath she glanced at Anthem for a moment, taking in his reaction. Don't get angry. She didn't need to get angry. There as no reason for it and she. Reached in before she breathed out once more. "Water. The power to control that, you are like your mother." To her they deserved to get payback after messing with her son. Her paw lifted up and she curled her claws, a single orb of water forming there. "I can teach you more Ruven, if you want to learn."

[Byriath]

[ASTRAEA CIPHER-LINGRÉ]

[glow=white,1,400]I'M JUST A PUPPET IN YOUR PLAY ! — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

Oh god, there was Sojourn. The fur along Astraea's spine rose as the Kingpin approached, questioning her comment - followed by Byriath stating that no joke was truly harmless. "B-but all they were doing was throwing water balloons -" I think. "- its-its not like they were hurting him. Y'know, with words or claws." At least from what she'd seen at least.[glow=white,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

[trojan g.]

[align=center][div style="max-width: 415px;text-align: justify;font-family: times new roman;font-size: 10pt;line-height: 116%;text-indent: 35px;"]There was a lot of talking and a lot of members coming around Ruven as things had happened. He didn't connect the words that were spoken at first, still trying to figure out what happened, but eventually he came to, and eventually he answered the questions that were thrown at him. "I didn't know I could do that... it just happened, I didn't control it." he hadn't even thought about them getting soaked with the water instead, it just simply happened as if it was controlled by his emotions. He was upset at them for throwing water at him, so they got it back in return. "I'm okay though, other than a bit confused I guess?" If he could do this did that mean he could do other powers too?

When Astraea came over and spoke, Ruven found his ears flicking back to his head for a moment before he shook his head. "It's freezing outside and they threw water at me... I don't think that's very harmless." He certainly wouldn't do something like that to someone unless he wanted to hurt them in some way. He could have gotten really sick, and he hoped that they did. That'd teach them a lesson. Head turned to the others as they came over and he watched as Anthem came over, listened to his words before his attention was caught by Sojourn's show of her own water elementals. He didn't know she could do it too. "You'll teach me? For real?" Maybe he could use his new powers in battle one day, to make sure the Coalition defeat all it's enemies.

[ARVID R.]

Many others saw fit to come over and comment on Ruven's new discovery, although Astraea was the one that particularly caught Arvid's attention. The canine rolled his eyes as he heard the girl's soft hearted words, and he pointed out, "It's not really harmless, if it put Ruven in a state of distress. From what I've gathered, powers are usually triggered by an unpleasant experience. You think his elemental would have suddenly manifested itself if he hadn't been being pelted with water in freezing cold weather? Frostbite is certainly a possibility – retaliating with something that could leave a similar mark seems fitting, at least to me." With every passing day, the canine found himself wondering if Astraea was truly fit for living within the Coalition. She had such a soft and naive nature to her... ultimately, he could see her either breaking and running away, or finally snapping enough to fit in with the rest of them. Either way, he doubted Aphra would end up caring about whatever she did – if Astraea fled, that just meant one less kid to bother with, right?

Shaking that off for the moment, though, Arvid then focused his attention back on Ruven, and Sojourn. She was going to teach him more about it, huh? That was certainly intriguing to the dire wolf, who wanted nothing more than to learn about powers, and what they came from. He decided to question Ruven himself, tail wagging faintly behind him as he spoke, "Maybe, at some point, you could come and test your powers at my home? Or, well, somewhere nearby, since I don't want anything destroyed... I think it would be interesting to see you push yourself – and I'd love to see how the elemental works up close." In this particular scenario, he hadn't exactly gotten to see much. He had just been nearby, looked up, and then the others were drenched. It was impressive to be sure, but not exactly something that he could extensively think on. He didn't really think that Ruven would refuse the offer, but even if the young male did, it wouldn't be too much of a loss for Arvid. It wasn't as if the scientist needed to stalk him in order to see his powers in action once more – he was sure a time would come when they needed to be used, for something like a raid, or another disaster situation.

i wanna be the sand inside that hourglass