Wednesday Jan 23

[st_hotflashes]

Liz felt like she was behind which was silly considering she wasn't in actual school and there were no state-wide exams or anything else which would require her to keep up with her studies at regular pace. Still, it bothered Liz that for almost two weeks now her classes and everything had been at a virtual stand still.

She was thankful for getting some notes from Peter and that he promised to help her study. She sat up on the bed, back against the headboard and knees up with her book open. "Do you like having Ned in Kitty's classes now?" She wondered if it was a nice reminder of home or a painful one.

Comments

[st_hotflashes]

"Okay..." She thought about it. "Well, we were studying in my room. Calculus." In case that mattered. "We started talking about me going back to Peter's world and how if I came I would be changing the population and maybe it would change who um... " She still couldn't quite say 'died'.

"And then Peter said he didn't want me to get hurt and..." While she thought about it, picturing how Peter kissed her on her forehead. Suddenly her hands began to flicker a green-yellow electricity.

[st_ratagem]

Ah, there. What were the odds whatever was was responding to emotion? Fairly good, Loki thought.

Just out of curiosity, to see what if anything would happen, he fished a wooden tongue depresser out of a book where it had been serving as a makeshift bookmark and handed it to Liz.

[st_arkintern]

Peter shoots Loki a questioning look, then turns to Liz.

[st_hotflashes]

Liz wasn't sure why he was handing her a spoon at first, but then she realized why. She reached out to grasp the spoon. She stood there and looked at it, but it did nothing. She felt a surge of frustration.

Frowning, she closed her eyes for a moment, shaking her head. Somehow it felt like she was failing. "I'm sorry." She looked to Peter and her frown deepened a little. Then the spoon exploded in her hand. Liz immediately let go of whatever was remaining in surprise and jumped back.

[st_ratagem]

Loki waved slightly, as if brushing something aside, and a little telekinesis bounced the flying shards away. The gesture wasn't necessary, but he felt obscurely that it was less threatening when he advertised what he was doing. "Well, I can safely say you're almost certainly not ill. I'd consider possession a possibility if I didn't think it was essentially impossible to arrange here."

[st_arkintern]

Possession was not a possibility that Peter considered until that moment. He'd already been unnerved before Loki started listing possibilities aloud, but now, he felt even moreso.

He had no idea what was going on and he wanted to. This was Liz. If any of this had been happening to him, he'd be considerably calmer about the whole thing. But it wasn't happening to him. It was happening to her and he couldn't stand it.

"What do you think it is?"

[st_hotflashes]

"I'm not possessed." She didn't sound entirely sure of it, but she said it anyways. However, the wave of worry that washed over her caused the sort-of-electric waves to intensify and she grimaced.

Liz told herself to get a grip and she closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she tried to go over the possibilities. There was this nagging feeling and the more she thought about it, the more it tugged at her.

"Max." She opened her eyes, but couldn't bring herself to look at Peter. In fact, she was staring at the ground and not even at Loki. "Max and the others... the could do things like this."

[st_ratagem]

"It does seem more like powers coming in. Thor was a nightmare at times when we were children. Lightning everywhere, indoor rain. Years of it." Loki watched Liz carefully. "It seems to respond to your emotions. If you picked up powers from people in your universe, so much the better. It's not a complete unknown, which means making a start will be easier."

[st_arkintern]

That at least explained it.

"How did your friends handle it?" he asks. "I mean, they already had their powers when they met you, right? Did they ever talk about how they used them?"

[st_hotflashes]

Her hand moved to her stomach almost instinctively where she had been shot. She forced herself to look up and over to Peter. "They were born with them... they used then in front of us a lot. They, um. Well, each sort of had their own thing, but they could all manipulate the molecular structure of things."

Her fingers curled into the fabric of her top as her eyes moved over to Loki. "I was shot. Two years ago. Max healed me. Saved my life."

[st_ratagem]

"That would do it, most likely. Healing generally involves at least some transfer of energy or life from the healer to the healed." The origin of the powers didn't matter terribly, in Loki's view, but he'd gotten to know Liz more than well enough to know that she would keep worrying and fretting and what-if-ing, no matter how useless it was, unless she had an answer she could believe. "Is there anything happening besides sparks on your hands, fire, and small explosions?"

[st_arkintern]

Peter looks over to Liz.

[st_hotflashes]

She shook her head. "I don't think so... but it hurts." She lifted up her hands and touched them together and decided that was a bad idea and parted them.

[st_ratagem]

“Right. Try this.” Loki pitched his voice as calm and smooth as he could; he’d once lulled one of Odin’s guards to sleep by reciting court gossip with this tone. That had taken a while, longer than he had here, but soothing was soothing. “Close your eyes. Focus on your breathing, put it on a count of four. In for four, out for four. There’s nothing else you have to do at all. Only breathe.”

If he was right and this was currently triggered by emotion, it stood to reason that if Liz were calmed or distracted, it would stop.

[st_hotflashes]

Loki's thoughts were right. When Liz listened and closed her eyes, she breathed in and out following his command. Her shoulders softened and her hands went from having sparks to none at all. She opened her eyes and blinked, looking back down at her regular hands.

[st_ratagem]

“Triggered by emotion. For the moment, anyway.” Loki didn’t bother to suppress the note of smugness. It was fun to be right! “The next question is what you were feeling when it started.” Not anger. Likely not sadness. Fear? Maybe.

[st_arkintern]

"Um," Peter says tentatively. He looks at Liz uncertainly. He's not sure whether or not it just started when they were alone in that room together; he doesn't want to make assumptions -- and he's also not sure if Liz wants to tell Loki about it.

[st_hotflashes]

Liz pressed her lips together. Her gaze ventured over to Peter for a moment with a sort of expression that people had when they were hesitant to speak about something in front of him.

"I think..." She had no idea about the time at the cliff or the few times her powers manifested quietly before now. "Well... I got sick when Mr. Stark told me about... What happens to Peter."

She suddenly realized she didn't feel nauseous like she had been since then. She wasn't as clammy either, like her body was back in control instead of losing some sort of internal battle.


Liz thought - what was it that she had felt? Scared, sure, but she had been scared before and nothing happened. Her eyes fell back to Peter. "I remember feeling upset at the time and also that I didn't know a way to help him." There was the smallest of sparks that appeared, though Liz wasn't aware.

[st_ratagem]

"Fear, then. Or worry, more accurately." Fear for others was really all that worry was. Loki didn't miss the little spark, either: remembered worry was almost enough to touch it off. Judging from Thor as a child, the sensitivity could indicate a higher potential power level... strength manifesting more strongly. "Fear is manageable, but this may be more difficult for you." She knew she worried. It wouldn't be a revelation. "The breathing worked, though. Until we've worked out some other control method, that should help somewhat."

[st_arkintern]

Loki's thoughtfulness is shaping his perception of Loki now. Sure, there were times where he wasn't very helpful, but it was clear he cared enough about Liz enough to try to help. Probably more than try.

Peter looks between Liz and Loki.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

[st_hotflashes]

God, this was complicated. What the heck had Max done to her? It wasn't like she could ask any of them anyways.

She nodded to Loki, taking in his advice and direction seriously before looking at Peter. Of course she had to complicate his already complicated life.

"Just, um... Don't let me hurt you, okay?" She pressed her lips together with a small frown. She would never forgive herself if he got hurt because of her again.

[st_ratagem]

“Ignore her,” Loki told Peter. “About that, at least. If she doesn’t have control yet, why should you be expected to? I suggest instead that you’re the most likely person to trigger it until we, or Liz rather, works out actual control. Try to provide calm or distraction when you see sparks, take her through breathing if necessary, be normal otherwise. She’s not broken or sick,” Loki gave the girl a look, “so don’t let her act like she is.”

[st_arkintern]

Peter looks at Loki and nods solemnly. "Okay. I can do that." He'd seen Loki do it, so he could try it, too.

[st_hotflashes]

She almost apologized, but figured Loki would probably roll his eyes so hard he'd hurt himself. "Thank you... I'll try to, um. Learn to control it." Somehow. This wasn't exactly what she had in mind for a new year resolution.

[st_arkintern]

Peter looks over to Liz.