Post by Harley Mannin on Jun 28, 2010 23:10:51 GMT -5
HARLEQUIN SKYE MANNIN!
Playby: Kaya Scodelario
Playby: Kaya Scodelario
WHAT MADE YOU HESITATE
to tell me with words how you really feel?
to tell me with words how you really feel?
"Good afternoon, Miss uh... Harle...quin? Harlequin."
"Yeah, Harlequin. Harlequin Skye Mannin. But you can call me Harley if you'd like."
"Okay then... Harley. I notice you're enrolled in the University. Does that mean you've also been recently found by one of our Scouts?"
"Yes, thank God. And I thought being a senior was hard enough. I'm just barely starting freshman year and already it's so hard to take... I mean, it's horrible when you're spending your 18th birthday concentrating on staying sane."
"It's all right. You're safe here. Can you read my surface thoughts now?"
"No. Do you want me to?"
"No, no. I was just wondering. What other Gifts do you think you have? Or have you recognized others?"
"Oh yeah. Definitely. I mean, other than getting a swarm of thoughts and images from people that I don't want, I'll have visions. Like, of the future. in dreams and stuff. Sometimes they come true, sometimes they don't. And I remember everything. Literally. Everything I hear or read or see, it's stuck in my brain."
"Must get pretty crowded sometimes. The mind-reading is what we call Telepathy, though at a low, uncontrolled state. Seeing the future is known as Precognition, and we call that, uh, 'photographic memory' Eidetic Memory."
"Cool. I mean, I'm glad I know the 'technical' terms or whatever."
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I MISSED YOUR SKIN
when you were east
when you were east
"Enough small-talk, don't you think? I want you to do something for me. Close your eyes... Good? Now describe yourself. Your body, your eyes, your hair. Your clothing choices and style."
"Okay..." *sighs* "Well, I'm not very tall. Like, 5' 5" or something like that. My hair is very dark brown, and my eyes are blue... I wear a lot of makeup, haha. But I don't sleep well so I have bags under my eyes. I have to wear makeup pretty much. Speaking of which, I get stressed out a lot. Which is why I'm so thin. I'm not anorexic, I promise, but in between having nightmares and being bombarded with everyone's minds, it sometimes gets hard to eat anything. Uh... I mostly wear whatever I feel like it. I guess you could say my style is indie, but I just wear what I want. Like today I'm wearing a loose blouse and jeans and some friendship bracelets. And gladiator sandals."
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I'VE GOT TROUBLED THOUGHTS
and the self-esteem to match
and the self-esteem to match
"That's good, that's very good. You can open your eyes. Now describe your inside to me. What you think of yourself. How you act. Why you act that way."
*long silence, she looks away and says nothing for a while*
"What's wrong? Are you uncomfortable with this exercise?"
"Oh. Sorry, no, I'm okay. Just thinking. I'm actually pretty comfortable talking to you. I guess it's because I've seen other counselors, I know I can trust them. But... It's different for pretty much everyone else."
"Hm? What do you mean? Please explain this to me."
"I don't know... I mean, because of my telepathy, I can see what most other people can't see. I see all the liars and backstabbers for who they are. It's painful to watch, and even worse to try and confront them about it. I don't want to put my trust in people who don't deserve it, you know?"
"I do know. But doesn't that include everyone? We all lie sometimes."
"I guess. I mean, I had friends. Before my powers started appearing. I could trust them, you know? But... After I saw what they thought of me, how they were jealous because I started losing weight, how they wondered what was wrong with me when i got stressed... It was just too much to deal with. I hadn't really made friends since."
"That sounds terrifying. To be so lonely... I can't even imagine it. They just abandoned you?"
"I guess. I had to go into counseling because it was so bad. But even that was pretty traumatic. I went through three before I settled on one whose mind I couldn't read. She was a very good shrink. All the others' minds kept wandering, asking themselves when I'd just shut the hell up - pardon my language - so they could go home and sleep with their spouses and forget about all of my crap."
"You still haven't described yourself to me."
"That's your fault, though." *laughs* "I don't know what else to say at this point. I don't like people who try to judge me and then think I don't know what they're saying about me. I find it hard to trust people. Honesty is a big issue for me. It's hard to be happy and content unless the voices in my mind are quiet, or at least controlled: neither of which are happening."
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YOU CAN'T BE TOO CAREFUL ANYMORE
when all that is waiting for you won't come any closer
when all that is waiting for you won't come any closer
"About when was that? I mean, that you realized your powers."
"It was five years ago, when I started freshman year... In high school, I mean. Three days after my birthday. Right as the tardy bell rang to take attendance. It was like the buzzer for a starting gate on a racehorse track. It sounded and all of a sudden this mass of thoughts flooded in."
"How did you cope with that?"
"It was really, really hard. Freshman year was the worst year of my life. For the first, like, three weeks of school I was always out sick. Always. The mind voices would give me these major migraines and make me photophobic and nauseous. I'd get these awful shakes. Some days I couldn't even go to school. Just being with Rebecca was enough to make me go crazy."
"Who's Rebecca?"
"My adopted mom."
"You were adopted?"
"Yes. I never knew my parents. And I don't remember them because my 'eidetic' memory didn't start until Christmas Eve when I was 9."
"So does she treat you well, this Rebecca? Is she married?"
"Yeah, his name is Thomas, Tom. And they're okay people. But Rebecca can be mean. She thinks I'm some introverted freak. Which is a little true, I guess. But still. She'll tell me - out loud, mind you - that I need to get a life, or a social life, that I need to stop being so skinny or she'll force feed me someday, or disown me and stop paying for tuition."
"She doesn't know you're Gifted? Not even when your gifts first surfaced?"
"She's never known. Probably won't ever know. Neither does or will Tom. I mean, my life was just a blur before I got my eidetic memory. And after that it was just constant... I don't know. Boredom. There was nothing to do at my house. I always went over to friends' houses, but even then I felt excluded and useless. I was 12 when I started writing poetry. And it was in the middle of the summer that I met Boomer, which was this stray Labradoodle that I took care of a lot. I loved that guy. I fed him and everything."
"Was it just him or was it all animals?
"It's all animals. I filled entire notebooks on poems about animals, but especially dogs and horses. I always wanted to take horseback riding lessons, but Rebecca didn't approve. So... I guess I was just bored still. Boomer was a good friend, but then he disappeared. I didn't have any siblings to associate with, and only a couple friends that I lost as a freshman anyways."
"Speaking of which, you haven't told me about your precognition yet. Any incidents with that that come to mind?"
"Yeah, a lot. The worst was when I saw this kid's death. He died driving to school, in a head-on collision because he wasn't paying attention and didn't have a seatbelt on. The other driver also died, instantly. Thankfully I didn't know either of them. I mean, I knew the student, but not well. Just his name and what he looked like. But there have been pretty bad ones."
"Anything good at all?"
"Some... But not much. Mostly I get visions of just stupid stuff, like a classroom setting or at my house, like, writing a poem or something. Little annoying things that don't really have an impact."
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DO YOU THINK ABOUT
everything you've been through?
everything you've been through?
"I'm going to have to stop you there. You need to get to orientation so you can get your dorm and class schedule established. But really. This was a good session. I learned a lot about you."
"Thanks... I think? Sorry if I was boring."
"Not at all. Why are you apologizing?"
"It's a habit. I don't mean to... But see, I almost said it just then, too."
"You're perfectly fine. And it says here that you're contemplating not returning to therapy. That's perfectly acceptable but you should know that we're here if you need us. It's no problem to come in and talk to someone if you're feeling stressed."
"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."
"All right, then, take care."
"Thanks, you too."
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BUT WHEN THE SUN COMES OUT
I'll still be around
I'll still be around
Name: adder
Roleplaying experience: 5 years
How'd you find us: I posted in the "looking for" thread on proboards support and got a link to this board a few years ago.
Other characters: none
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