Office Hours, Tuesday

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell wasn't sulking, or hiding. Nothing so pedestrian as that.

He was being avoidant. Avoidant of people, avoidant of his memories, avoidant of the fact he was riding a high buzz on the blood currently still flowing through his system. He knew the come down was going to be horrifically bad this time, but not for another day or two.

Right now he was the safest he could be, even though everyone was back to smelling like food and--

What he really needed was a distraction.

So Mitchell was back in his office. Poking through TV channels.

[[ open. there shall be no biting today ]]

Comments

[awakestheghosts]

She smiled faintly. "Sorry, it's habit. I um..." Oh how to start this? "I wanted to talk to you about why I was so upset during last week's class... and why yesterday's class had me in deep thinking mode."

[chosehumanity]

"Sit down, then." This attempt was slightly more succesful. Especially now that he had the option of gesturing towards the seat at the desk. "We can ward off the squirrels if you'd like. Little bas-- little rodents keep poking about the building."

[awakestheghosts]

"I hope they're not hanging out here right now." Chloe nodded and sat down. Talking about this was going to be hard enough as it was without worrying that the squirrels were going to out her as a freak.

"It's just that... Dr. Frankenstein." She puffed out a breath. "I'm worried that I may be a monster like he was. See... I do that. Just not with electricity and not exactly on purpose."

Way to clear things up there, Chloe. Maybe you can vague it up even more?

NFB from here please!

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell took a moment to wave a hand at the window behind him, sending some squirrels skittering away. "Bloody things," he muttered, shook his head, and paid attention.

"You can bring the dead to life?"

He didn't sound judgemental. Just curious.

Re: NFB from here please!

[awakestheghosts]

Chloe nodded, giving him a sad smile. "I don't mean to do it and I don't exactly have control over it yet. I just discovered that I had that ability recently, shortly before I was sent here."

Re: NFB from here please!

[chosehumanity]

"The hard way, it sounds like," he said, quirking his eyebrows up in sympathy. "You know having some kind of... thing doesn't immediately make you a monster."

Re: NFB from here please!

[awakestheghosts]

Chloe chewed on her lip. "But what I do... they don't have the choice to come back or not, Mitchell," she said quietly, letting some of her worry spill out. "I had one... creature... attack me because I brought his spirit back into his decomposing body." She looked at him. "I didn't mean to. I was asleep and dreaming when it happened. I didn't mean to do that to him."

Re: NFB from here please!

[chosehumanity]

Ow.

For a moment, he was seeing Lauren again as she had been, just before he left. He shoved the image away.

"Matters of life and death aren't as simple as we like to think they are, Chloe," he said, after a moment. "Especially not when we're just starting off with trying to figure out what we are. What your powers will make you. You can only endure and try to master it."

He leaned forward. "If you had had the choice, would you have? Or would you have left well enough alone?"

Re: NFB from here please!

[awakestheghosts]

"I would never have done that to anyone if I could have helped it," she said with determination. "Had I known that would happen I would have told my friends that we needed to hide out somewhere else for the night when I felt the body in the warehouse with us."

Oops. She hadn't meant to say that part.

Re: NFB from here please!

[chosehumanity]

"Your friends were there when you woke this thing up?"

What? It had to be said.

Re: NFB from here please!

[awakestheghosts]

She let out a breath and then nodded. "We were hiding for the night in the warehouse after we ran away. I fell asleep and it was Derek who woke me up when he realized what was happening. It was trying to attack me because of what I did by accident. I managed to lay the body back to rest, but the spirit was angry and tried to attack me."

Re: NFB from here please!

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell nodded slowly. "So what did you do with the spirit?"

Re: NFB from here please!

[awakestheghosts]

"I can't control spirits," Chloe said softly. "I can see them all of the time and I can communicate with them, but apparently that's all I can do unless I've brought them into a body. At least, from the two times that I've raised bodies, that's what it's seemed like." She frowned. "We were in danger and we ran. I think the spirit chased us for a little while, but he didn't follow us far from where his body was. We later called anonymously to let the police know there was a body in the warehouse."

Re: NFB from here please!

[chosehumanity]

"They say only the supernatural can see ghosts," Mitchell said, his head tilting a little. He wasn't as invested in this topic as werewolves but oh, he would be, thank you Annie but he knew a fair amount. "Or people who are really, really invested in seeing them."

He looked thoughtful.

"Sounds like quite a power you've got."

Re: NFB from here please!

[awakestheghosts]

"It wasn't a power I would have ever wanted," she said. "Seeing ghosts got me sent to a very bad place." Her forehead creased as she tried to figure out how much she could safely tell Mitchell about what had been going on before she was hidden here. "I didn't want to bring the dead back to life any more than I'm sure Derek wanted to be a werewolf. None of us got the choice. Experiments." That last part was a mutter.

Re: NFB from here please!

[chosehumanity]

"We very rarely get a say in these things."

Mitchell had had one. Arguably. But George hadn't.

"What's ours is to figure out how to live with them. I have a friend who... treats his thing like it's seperate from his life. An uncontrollable monster that shares the same space with him."

He fixed his eyes on Chloe. "I'd rather you not go with that rhetoric."

Re: NFB from here please!

[awakestheghosts]

She was quiet for a long moment. "My friend, Derek, the one who woke me up when he realized that I had brought someone back from the dead? He's... he's a werewolf. He doesn't seem to be as worried about his thing as I am about mine." She looked down at her hands. "It's not separate from me, it is me and I guess that's what worries me."

Re: NFB from here please!

[chosehumanity]

"Some things you just have to live with," he said, wryly. "There are ways to learn how to cope with it."

Re: NFB from here please!

[awakestheghosts]

"I think that's one of the things that was worrying me in class last week. Frankenstein had a choice and he chose to bring things back from the dead for the power he felt over it. He didn't give them a choice and he didn't care what happened." She sighed. "I can't control it and I do care what happens. I don't want to become like him."

Re: NFB from here please!

[chosehumanity]

"Listen, Chloe," Mitchell said, leaning over a bit further, "You are nothing like Frankenstein. You didn't want this power, but you've got it. You shouldn't be concerned with whether or not you're evil. You should be concerned with making sure your powers will do what you want them to."

Re: NFB from here please!

[awakestheghosts]

Chloe was actually starting to feel a little better now that she had told someone the truth about her and what was going on.

"Derek thinks I should practice with my powers because that's the only way I'll learn to control them. We found a dead bird when we were hiding out and I managed to bring it back to life... but when they started shooting at us, I made it go back away so we could run. I didn't want to leave it like that."

Re: NFB from here please!

[chosehumanity]

"You shouldn't."

There was a long, long pause.

"Do you know if there's any others like you?"

[[ i start to tap out for the night now. niiight! ]]

Re: NFB from here please!

[awakestheghosts]

She took awhile to respond. "Not that can do the same things I can. Derek is a werewolf. Tori is a witch. Simon is a sorcerer we think. Rae is part demon and likes fire. Liz..." Chloe's voice faltered. "Liz was able to move things with her mind before they killed her."


[[Night!]]

Re: NFB from here please!

[chosehumanity]

"I'm sorry," he said. "Who did?"