Luca Casimir's Story

Honey, are you sure you can do this?”

“Yes, mother. I’m just as ready as I was five minutes ago.”

The lady of the Casimir house eyed her bright red manicure with a sudden interest. “Well, you never know. It’s just that I...” -she sucked in a breath- “worry about you....”

Luca stared out of the car’s tinted window, deciding to wait his mother out. He could feel them, all of the other students milling about the train station. Their laughter, their excitement, their fear... all of those emotions were his now, battering against his psyche with an almost physical force.

That one is uncertain they will fit in....

She wonders if her great-uncle is going to be alright without her... On instinct, Luca swiveled his attentions to the elderly man the young girl was currently saying goodbye to. The man was a psychic, and as such had a few barriers. Luca hesitated for a split second before cracking open his mental door, just enough surpass the walls and feel out the old uncle. Luca’s eyes narrowed.

She’s right. The geezer is going to miss her a lot.

Suddenly Luca was drawn from his reverie, noticing a concerned surge of energy coming from his mother. The youth instantly swiveled around to face the middle-aged woman once more.

“You know, I sometimes... I sometimes wonder if we’ve sheltered you too much, your father and I. Maybe if we had allowed you to go to school when you were younger, you could’ve built up more of a resistance. Then... maybe then you wouldn’t be forced to do... this!” Mrs. Casimir looked away, gesturing wildly at her son.

Luca frowned. “You’re just waving your hands in my general direction.”

Mrs. Casimir jerked her head back to her son, impatiently pushing her curly brown hair out of her blue eyes. “You know what I’m talking about!” -she snapped- “Look at those kids out there, Luca! I bet not one of them has to deal with... has to be reduced to what you’re having to do here!”

The dark haired young man sighed impatiently. “Mother, you know that I don’t really mind-”

“Don’t mother me, you weak-willed pansy! Look at you! You look like, like a weirdo!” Mrs. Casimir threw her hands up in the air dramatically. “There! There, I said it! I’m such a terrible mother, calling my own son a weirdo. But it’s true! It’s true!”

Luca just stared impassively as his mother began the waterworks, sobbing as if there was no tomorrow. He knew that at the end of it all, she would be fine and her mascara would be as perfect and un-smudged as ever. When Mrs. Casimir finally raised her head, sniffling and wiping her eyes, he was proved right.

“How can you not care?”

Luca rolled his eyes. “The mundane opinions of the masses have never really been a deciding factor in either of our lives, Mother. We both have more important things to worry about.” He pulled out a pair of sunglasses, and slipped them on, the black lenses glinting malevolently.

“Like, for example, eye safety.”

Mrs. Casimir snorted. “You look like a freak! Seriously, with that sweatshirt, and that creepy ‘stay away from me’ aura you have surrounding you, you’re a total stalker!”

Luca recoiled, suddenly defensive. “You know just as well as I do that ‘creepy aura’ is just a side effect of my anti-empathy shield!”

“But I worry for you! What if everybody figures out how weird you are!? What if my son doesn’t have any friends!?”

The elderly chaffeur in the driver’s seat finally turned around, unable to take his mistress’s distress for a second time. He sobbed, tears streaming down his wrinkled face.

“Don’t worry, mistress! Since the young master takes after his father in the looks department, I’m sure that his peers will be unable to see past the superficiality! No one will ever know how much of a freak he is, I assure you!”

Mrs. Casmir choked. “Oh Charles, I knew I could count on you!”

“Mistress!”

“Charles!”

“Mistress!”

“Charles!”

Luca rolled his eyes at his mother’s flamboyancy. It was to be expected, of course, that he couldn’t escape without some kind of humiliation. Though she didn’t look like it, the lady of the Casimir house was quite peeved that her son had decided to leave her.

Suddenly black eyes flicked over towards the train. “I need to go.”

Mrs. Casimir looked up, startled. “So soon!? Maybe, maybe we can wait for the next one...”

Luca glared. “No. You’ve caused me to miss the train three times now, mother. I think it’s about high time I board, don’t you think?”

Blue eyes locked with ebony. There was a moment of charged silence; this was the last chance, he was really going to leave, and if she wanted to stop him that time was now. When her gaze hardened, Luca thought she was going to make him stay, but Mrs. Casimir’s gaze softened, and she looked away.

“Look, Luca...” Luca was instantly at attention. It was a rare event for his mother to speak his name. “I-I know how you feel about interacting with others. I know how much energy it saps from you, how much it hurts to be around people who are hurting.” Mrs. Casimir reached under her seat, fumbling with what looked like a cake box.

“Just, just promise me this, Luca. Don’t shut people out, don’t ever distance yourself from people who need you. Luca, that’s how empaths like us become tainted. Normally we exist to be a healing force for other humans, but if we become too self-centered, or emotionally unbalanced, you know what kind of impact we can have on others around us.”

Luca’s mother grabbed her son’s chin, forcing him to look at her. “Luca, we can scar people. Don’t be like that. Be someone people know they can turn to for help.” After planting a swift kiss on his cheek, Mrs. Casimir finally released her son, handing him the cake box.

“Now take this, you should already have your stuff in your room, but I want you to have this as a final parting gift from me to you.” Mrs. Casimir smirked. “Now get out of here before you miss your train, stupid boy.”

________________________________________________________


Luca felt like he was on the verge of throwing up. He was slumped in front of the mansion’s courtyard, clinging feebly to a nearby pillar. Oh god. This was... difficult, to say the least. He had arrived just before the mob of people had arrived, but unfortunately didn’t get his wits about him fast enough to escape the surge.

So Luca Casimir, one of the most sensitive empaths of the age, was forced to experience the emotions of several hundred people within an extremely short period of time. And while the magority of the people seemed to have left (thank god), a disturbing amount of psychics still remained on the property. The haggard young man gagged, clamping a pale hand over his mouth as if to physically force the vomit to stay within his body. Would he have to deal with this number of people every single day? The prospect was utterly horrifying.

Luca scowled, wincing as he attempted to straighten himself. Screw the whole ‘being a healing force’, if this is what he had to go through on a daily basis, he would gladly corrupt himself. Corrupted empaths were cut off from the feelings of others, but still had access to the extra information that came with empathy. While that was all fine and dandy, corrupted empaths were almost always manipulative and self-serving, because, well, they no longer had understanding for other people’s feelings.

But, remembering his mother’s words, Luca decided to hold out for a little longer. He sucked in a breath, trying to go over all of the things he and his mother usually did in such situations. First of all, he needed to isolate himself, find a protected room where he might be able to either sleep off the unwelcome feelings or meditate through them.

Okay, so he only had to make it to his room then. Luca frowned. His mother had made herself in charge of his living conditions here at the Mansion as a term for allowing his departure. She hadn’t told him what his room was like, let alone what number it was. Desperate black eyes fixated onto the cake box. There. The information had to be there, otherwise he was doomed. If Luca had to spend his last few crumbs of energy asking for directions, he was going to pass out. For sure.

With shaking hands, Luca fumbled with the stiff cardboard lid, only just managing to slide it open.

Luca stared blankly at the small black rabbit that was seated comfortably inside the box.

The rabbit stared back impassively.

Trell’s hand smoothly lifted up into the air, her index finger touching the back of a floating leaf for a moment. She dropped it back to play with velvety ears, running her fingers through the soft fur. She gently swayed back and forth on a bench swing.

“Are you sure I can’t take Pike with me?” The girl’s voice was quiet but ever so sincere. She continued to mess with the ears of the fox that lounged next to her on the swing.

“NO.” Her mother snapped at her without thinking. Trell recoiled, obviously jarred by the sudden emotion being shoved into her being. The fox’s ears immediately fell back onto its skull in irritation at the woman and worry for the girl.

A soft sigh escaped her mother’s lips. “We’ve been over this at least ten times. I don’t want that… animal attracting ridiculous amounts of attention to you and distracting you from making actual friends!” Pike’s ears returned to their original stance, though an air of irritation lingered about his persona. ”She overreacts to everything, doesn’t she, Pike?” The girl connected with her companion, pretty much zoning out on her mother with a still hurt expression on her face. It was the reason she was going to this academy, she needed to learn how to better society and learn how to control her powers instead of being hassled and torn by them.

”You don’t know the half of it. I brought a dead mouse to the door yesterday for you as a gift and she nearly killed me with that broom. Not only that but she trashed the mouse as well.” A grumbling tone reverberated through the connection, and the fox’s tail twitched softly against the wood.

“Trell, are you even listening to me?” Her attention snapped back to her mother. A groan escaped her mother’s lips before she clenched her fists slightly. “Just get your luggage and we’ll be off.” Trell resigned her fight to get her companion to come with her, seeing as it was a fruitless quest, and went to seek out her luggage. She had pretty much always had a private tutor, so she was extremely wary of having to go to an academy with so many people. Sure, she got out enough to have like one or two friends, but nothing more.
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That was about five and a half hours ago. In the time since, she had been shoved into a plane in close proximity with about fifty seven other people. She had gotten a window seat, so she was able to distract herself with that instead of taking in everyone else’s feelings. About three hours in she had noticed a flock of geese that were flying a bit too close to the plain for her liking.

So she had tried to shoo them away by waving her hands, trying frantically to get them away from her, out of danger and out of range. But unfortunately, at least a handful of people turned and looked at her funny, their emotions being flung at her like shards of glass. The softest of whimpers escaped her lips, she couldn’t run and hide as she was in a closed space. So she just shoved her face against the glass and trembled softly.

It was a brilliant start to being reintroduced to large amounts of people.
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She clasped her hands tightly together, her head dipped and her eyes focused keenly on her lap. So far this trip was nothing but a nightmare, and she hadn’t even gotten to the academy yet. The car suddenly came to a halt, and she took a deep breath. She had zero places to hide during the entire day for obvious reasons. One, she was constantly on the move, two, she had no idea of her surroundings, and three, she was trying to be brave. She had been able to reach out to some of the animals along the roads, so it wasn’t so bad anymore.

She shifted off her seat and fumbled with the door handle for a moment before finally popping it open. “Thanks….” The girl mumbled uneasily to the driver, shutting the door behind her before grabbing her luggage and trying to shift immediately away from the building and the masses of people there. However, it was already far too late. The emotions of everyone easily reached her, digging into her form like sharp talons. She stood there frozen like a deer caught in headlights, and slowly began to break down, her eyes darting from side to side in a desperate plea to be distracted.

Suddenly, a bird twittered cheerfully, alighting on her shoulder and began to softly pick at her shirt. Her mind immediately shifted to the animal, forming the connection with the bird, a loud sigh escaping her lips as she settled back into the simple emotions of the little animal. When she finally looked up again, most of the mobs had disappeared. She took in another deep breath and began walking towards the school, suddenly much calmer. The bird continued to chatter happily in her ear as she walked, and her eyes scanned the rapidly approaching courtyard. There were pretty much no people there, but she quickly found her eyes drawn to one student leaning against a pillar, who seemed to be sort of stupefied for some reason or another. She treaded carefully towards the boy before opening her mouth to speak. “Uh, hi, d-“ However, she was immediately drowned out by the chirping of the bird, so she raised a hand and brushed the bird away sheepishly. It immediately took flight and disappeared. She coughed ever so softly, displaying how awkward she was feeling, and opened her mouth to speak again.

It then suddenly struck her that she was actually talking to someone, and… he wasn’t disrupting her own emotions. So she stood there, her mouth agape and just looking at him. Suddenly she stiffened up and she curled her fingers into her palm, her mouth shutting. “I uh, s-sorry, I-“ Trell stammered awkwardly before continuing, “I’m not usually this awkward, I don’t think. But uh d-dormitories, do you know where I can find them?” The girl finished lamely, trying to amend her behavior. “I’m just really overwhelmed.” She said in a single breath, uncharacteristically unaware of the animal within the box at his feet.

“Uh, hi, d-“

Luca stiffened in his slouched over position. Someone was... approaching him? Hah. Hahaha. Not exactly the smartest thing to do at the moment. As the high-pitched voice continued to speak, the young man closed the cake box, and refused to look up unless he absolutely had too. His hand twitched in annoyance, and he willed the girl leave him alone.

Of course, that wasn't going to happen. Understanding the futility of the situation, Luca finally opened his mind to the emotional whirlwind. Behind sunglasses, black eyes widened a fraction. So she was an empath, huh? It was always easy to identify one, simply because their feelings didn't grate on his like everyone else's did. Okay. So that made things a little more bearable, there might even be a chance he could make it through this situation without collapsing.

“I’m not usually this awkward, I don’t think. But uh d-dormitories, do you know where I can find them?”

Aha. Sure she wasn't always that awkward, what a joke. Luca could see right through her, even without the use of his psychic abilities. Body language. The girl was too nervous, too insecure. It was obvious that she didn't often talk to people, and she had poor social skills. And the dormitories? Heck, if he knew where the dormitories were he wouldn't be sitting here then, would he?

“I’m just really overwhelmed.”

Luca felt something within him snap. So, the little empath thought she was overwhelmed? His own sickness was temporarily forgotten in a wave of anger. He sat there unresponsive, defying her expectant silence, the pause becoming more and more awkward and weighed down by the second. Luca's eyes took on a steely quality as he slowly rose from his sitting position, towering over the interloper. Sure, she wasn't short, but Luca wasn't short either.

In one smooth motion, the young man removed both his sunglasses and hood, revealing his long black hair. He paused, raking over the girl's appearance with his hardened black gaze.

Luca scowled, leaning slightly forward, purposely using his height to his advantage as an intimidation tactic.

"You think you're overwhelmed?", he hissed, locking his obsidian against her blue in an accusatory glare. Luca was peeved. This empath was clearly inexperienced, and she was what, thirteen, fourteen years old? He himself had recently graduated high school.

Luca ran an exhausted and shaky hand through his black hair, suddenly feeling very hot. "Don't come complaining to me, okay? I was stuck in the middle of that goddamn mob when it came through, while you were probably hovering around on the outskirts."

The young man sucked in a deep breath. Hey, was it just him, or was the courtyard starting to spin a little bit? "And... and I'm extremely... ex- extremely vulnerable..." Luca blinked. What was he doing again? Oh yeah, telling off... that girl... He swallowed, swaying slightly.

"I... I really should be going to my room..." Luca's eyes rolled back into his head, and he crumpled, falling forward... onto the girl he had just been telling off.

Ah, life was cruel.

"Nice batch this year, eh?"

"I'd say so." She's been here for a year now, and she's probably not leaving any time soon.

"Too bad I can't show you, right? Considering you're holed up in your room." Holding her cell phone up by her shoulder, Juliette was fiddling with a three-dimensional puzzle on her desk — a 11x11x11 Rubik's Cube; her small hands were perfect for manipulating the mess it was, even if she couldn't hold it right without some effort.

"I can just look out my window, too." One of the instructors at the mansion was on the other end of the line. Derek was like a damn psychonaut, and he loved it — he even named his ability after the game's title, calling it his Psycho Dive. A projector like no other, Derek's abilities throw him into the mental landscapes of almost anyone. He was advanced, to say the least. The better half of a decade at the mansion has made him the most proficient mental projector yet. He can even control his projection and physical body simultaneously, so it's really difficult to know when he's Diving unless he's in your head. If he makes physical contact with someone, his Dives last only an instant in reality, too; Derek can tap someone on the shoulder, and by the time he's let go the Dive would have made a third of a second feel like two weeks. (The mind's perception of time is very fun to play with, as he'd say.) That's not the extent of his abilities, as you could imagine, but let's not delve into it.

"That's no fun, though." While that may be true, Juliette's room — last one on the second floor of the dormitories — had a perfect view of the main entrance to the mansion, including where everyone arrived.

"Why not dive into one of the newbies' minds? Wouldn't that be fun?"

"Most of 'em look like teenagers, Juliette; it shouldn't be difficult to know what's on their minds.... Of course, that isn't to say I wouldn't do it anyway."

"I know you would."

"Everybody needs something to laugh at, hun, and I'm pretty sure the prissy pink girl has a few insecurities."

"Pervert. Speaking of newbies, I was told I was getting a roommate this year. Mr. Goruden said it was an empath."

"And that'll just be so easy, since you can't even detect powers or read minds."

"Actually," Juliette smartass-ically retorted, rolling in her chair to the windowsill, "it pro'ly won't be too difficult. Just look for the people about to puke or pass out; gotta be one of them if it's not a mind-reader." An empath did puke on arrival the year before. It must have been too exciting with all the psychics around.

Almost on cue, down went Luca, and under him went Trell.

"Found two already," she finished.

As only silence answered her questions and statements, she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, watching the boy warily as he apparently thought. However, her poorly worded statement didn’t go over well with the boy, and he finally reacted to her.

She could feel his irritation begin to actually show and bother her, and she took a small step back, her hand clutched on the strap of her messenger bag, the rest of her bags fairly close by. However, the step hardly helped her at all, as he just advanced on her, stretching up to practically his full height and looming quite a few inches over her.

As he removed his hood and sunglasses, his eyes were open for her to scan over for any more hints at emotion even though she already had a pretty good idea of what was going on in his head. She only tilted her head to the side a fraction and uneasily shifted her gaze up to his hair before coming back down.

Trell could feel the claws of his gaze scraping down her form. She shivered slightly, as he decided to lean even further, posing quite the intimidating force. ”You think you’re overwhelmed?” His voice was malicious, and his gaze would have made her break down if she didn’t have enough self control.

“Sorry, I should have used a different word.” She muttered quickly, trying to back up away from him, but instead found herself frozen to the spot. But as he ran a hand through his hair, his negative emotions seemed to recede a bit- at least enough that she couldn’t feel them so strongly (it also helped that he was an empath as well)- but he continued speaking with a somewhat… labored voice.

"Don't come complaining to me, okay? I was stuck in the middle of that goddamn mob when it came through, while you were probably hovering around on the outskirts." She suddenly stamped a foot down, having regained her own ground when he relaxed fractionally. “Actually no, I just got here-“, she paused for a moment, suddenly replaying once more in her mind what he had said, “Well it’s not my fault if I have a little more sense than y-“ However, she was cut off- more he simply continued speaking as if he hadn’t really heard her, but nonetheless.

"And... and I'm extremely... ex- extremely vulnerable..." She blinked uneasily, ’What does he mean by that? It’s obvious that-‘ her thoughts were interrupted when her attention was snapped back to his features. He appeared to be… swaying?
‘Hey dude, you’re… you’re kind of getting a little close th-‘ She completely forgot to say that out loud, and so it was to no avail- it would have been so in any case. He mumbled something at her before his eyes suddenly rolled into the back of his head and he fell forward.

On top of her.

A small yelp escaped Trell’s lips as they both went down, and she suddenly felt pain split across her back and a little on the back of her head. She took in a sharp, labored breath, trying to get in some actual air as she was practically winded because he landed right on top of her.

The girl struggled underneath him, panic suddenly reaching out from her conscious- an accidental link to a few nearby animals. She placed her arms firmly on his shoulders and shoved him off of her. He was still unconscious though, so he… kind of landed face down in the dirt….

Trell sat there, unaware so far of what position he was in, a hand on her chest as she tried to catch her breath. Once she did, she looked up and gasped, realizing he was practically suffocating on dirt. She rose to her knees and swiftly crawled over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder yet again and rolling him onto his back. “Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh.” She stared at the dirt covering his face and quickly rummaged in her messenger bag, producing a water bottle and a clean cloth.

The girl crawled over him in attempts to get a better position to desperately clean his face off and his shirt before he woke up and murdered her. So, her knees planted on either side of his stomach, she quickly popped open the cap of the water bottle and poured it over the cloth, setting the bottle down still opened and set her left hand down on the ground so she could lean over him comfortably to rub at his face.

She ran the lukewarm cloth over his cheeks and chin and such quickly, wiping the dirt away from his skin. She was extremely panicked and trying to work quickly, and while she did, a few animals wandered over- curious as to what was going on, but more worried for the emotions that the girl had unwittingly shared with them. It was only about three- a squirrel, a hare, and a fawn.

Trell realized they were there, but didn’t have time to do anything about them. She simply hoped no one else was watching them. She leaned back to fold the cloth over so she could carefully wipe at the dirt near his eyes with a clean corner, and leaned in really close to his face to make sure she didn’t accidently jab him in the eye with the cloth.