[center][h1][b]FLASHBACK[/b][/h1][hr][h3][b][u]Unseen M[s]a[/s](e)chinations[/u][/b][/h3][/center]
[i][b]Collab With:[/b] [@ProPro] and [@yoshua171][/i][hr]
[hider]She’d woken up under warm blankets feeling safe and comfortable in body, but the feeling had been swiftly replaced by a growing dread. She banished her projection and forced her to get up after ten minutes of convincing herself. Eating breakfast, doing homework, moving, taking a shower, the actions were mechanical. She was a step removed.

Eventually, with some prodding and encouragement, Evelyn’s mom managed to convince her to go to PRT HQ. Every second of the drive was filled with her mom’s easy sense of humor, trying to break the tension and distract her. It almost worked, but alas the haunting silver ‘shadow’ caught her eye and reminded her of the dread and where she was going...and why she was going there. When they pulled up, her mom turned off the engine and, seeing that her humor hadn’t helped, she got out of the car and got into the backseat with Evelyn.

For a moment the seventeen year old girl that she was struggled against the tight embrace of her mother, but that’s as long as it lasted, a moment. She didn’t cry. She wasn’t crying. Her eyes were just watering a lot. She wasn’t scared, those knots were just cramps...because she was growing up. That wasn’t a knot in her throat, she just had something small stuck in her throat.

After what was perhaps five minutes or twenty, her mother pulled away, but looked into Evelyn’s eyes and smiled.

[i][b]“You’re brave. You get it from me. Your dad’s just a big ole’ bundle of nerves, but you’ve got my will of steel in you,”[/b][/i] her mom said. Evelyn tried to look away, but her mom, Lily, Lil, Lilliana, Mom, gently turned her chin back and met her eyes again. She swallowed hard, but held the gaze this time.

[color=#3068FF][b]“I don’t know mom. I don’t...I don’t feel like steel,”[/b][/color] she said, her voice weak, strained from crying. Her mom squeezed her shoulder, [i][b]“It’s okay sweetheart, my Evywevvy.”[/b][/i] Evelyn laughed a little and for once didn’t tell her mom to stop. The shared a smile and it was warm and safe and full of compassion and understanding.

God she loved her mom.

They hugged again and her mom got out of the car. Evelyn followed. Brushing off her clothes she started towards the building, but her mom caught her shoulder, and she turned to look at her again. [i][b]“It’s okay to be scared…”[/b][/i] she began, but Evelyn spoke, joining in, [color=#3068FF][b]“...but fear is the mindkiller, don’t be its next victim.”[/b][/color] Her mother nodded and smiled, pride and love and trust in her amber eyes. Evelyn nodded, squaring her jaw, closed her eyes and took some deep breaths. When she opened them her mom let go of her shoulder and gave her a small nod.

Turning away she approached the building. Behind her, Lilliana called out, [i][b]“Go get ‘em!”[/b][/i] She couldn’t help but smile.

Entering PRT HQ, Evelyn nodded to some of the workers, spoke briefly with the receptionist and then headed deeper in. Her heartbeat gradually ramped up the closer she got to the Director’s office. Outside his door she had to work up some courage. Closing her eyes she internally recited the little mantra her parents had taught her over the years. It was the same one she’d said with her mom earlier.

It’d helped get her through a lot. It would help her get through this.

It had to.

She knocked on the door.

A firm voice responded without any pause or hesitation. [color=brown]”It’s open, come on in.”[/color] As Evelyn entered, she was treated to the sight of Director Kens staring over numerous reports, both electronic and paper. It was more like he was staring through them, actually, with his glazed eyes covered in bags and dark rings. The director appeared to have not been sleeping much lately.

Noticing just who had entered his office, the director locked his computer screen and swept up the papers into a file, but she was able to catch sight of one in particular which was titled Notice of Action, which was addressed from the Youth Gard.

Once the documents were out of the way, Director Kens locked eyes with Evelyn. Though he maintained his composure and body language which screamed, ‘I’m the one in fucking charge,’ his eyes were softer than she’d ever seen before. His voice gentler. [color=brown]”I’m glad you were able to come today, Miss Chambers. After what happened, I know that exploring more about your power must be… Troubling. Unfortunately we have to determine what happened, if it was outside interference or…”[/color] He hesitated a moment. Director Kens never hesitated before. He always said hesitation was weakness. [color=brown]”If it was a natural consequence. And apart from that, yours is the power we have the least understanding of among the Wards. The experience may prove to even be therapeutic for you, Miss Chambers. At least, I hope it will.”[/color]

Director Kens took a moment to drink a bit of water he had sitting in a glass on his desk. Once that was done he continued, steeling himself. Gone was the softer man Evelyn had only just experienced for a scant few seconds, and returned was the tough bulldog that would tear a man’s legs off just to beat them with their own feet. [color=brown]”You’ll be heading to the labs on the second floor. You should be meeting with Bret Linkton and Alina Brestoff, two of our parahuman studies experts. I trust that you will cooperate with them to the fullest. You are excused, Miss Chambers.”[/color]

Fiercely resisting her equally intense urges to chew her lip and break down at his show of kindness, Evelyn instead smiled, shifting into a mindset of his subordinate. She was a Ward, following orders. Still she ended up chewing her cheek slightly before nodding. [color=#3068FF][b]“Thank you for your time and consideration sir. I’ll do my best,”[/b][/color] she almost choked on the last words and, embarrassed she bowed slightly and then turned on her heel and fled the room.

With her directions firmly in mind she made her way to the second floor labs, but before she got there she reminded herself of her mother’s words and of the Director’s. She was still surprised that he’d been so...understanding. He’d always seemed like a hardass, if a reasonable one. It made her smile a bit, and were her eyes watering?

[i]’Okay, so it’s a little touching,[/i] she thought to herself, smiling a little, before steeling herself and entering the lab.

[color=#3068FF][b]“Mr. Linkton, Ms. Alina, reporting in for t-testing,”[/b][/color] she swallowed hard as her awareness of the silver shadow--which was still many miles from that at present--shifted into the forefront of her mind.

The two expert were already preparing materials and equipment for the testing. Evelyn was greeted with the sight of Alina’s friendly smile, and Bret’s casual, yet non-confrontational, indifference. They seemed to be putting the finishing touches on some sort of cage made of glass? Hard plastic? Some transparent substance. It was barely large enough to contain an average sized person. 

“Welcome, good morning!” Greeted Alina Brestoff. She waved the young Ward in. Bret Linkton escorted her in, taking her coat if needed, and explained the basics.

“Good to have you. We want to start by observing your projection manifested in an isolated environment. If you could please, create it in a relatively harmless form in the cage. Don’t give it any orders. We just want to observe it naturally. So to speak.”

[color=#3068FF][b]“Thanks,”[/b][/color] she said, rubbing her arm a bit, before she caught herself and nodded, [color=#3068FF][b]“I...I think I can do that. Um…”[/b][/color] she glanced around looking for materials then, taking in a deep breath she made sure her breathing was steady before she tapped into that part of her mind that controlled the projection. She willed it to draw near and immediately, its shadow was there, in the room with them, but something was a little different.

The shadow was filling the entire room. It was [i]huge[/i]. Her breath caught in her throat, but she managed to steady it again, even as tears welled in her eyes.

She shut them for a moment and recited her mom’s affirmation under her breath, willing the projection to a smaller form. It obeyed. She took stock, meticulously, of the materials it had scanned. She scrapped all but the most harmless materials she could find.

[i]’Malleable/hard/soft(Clay).’[/i]

Those were the traits she set in place before shifting the ‘shadow’ into a humanoid shape only 4 feet tall, which she then placed into the designated space. She opened her eyes and looked to the two, [color=#3068FF][b]“Alright, I’m gonna manifest it now.”[/b][/color] She swallowed hard, equal parts fear and steel in her eyes. Her hands were clenched into fists and there was tension in her muscles despite her breathing being steady. She looked to the projection, it didn’t have any powers programmed in--though it appeared it had accidentally scanned a few. She only recognized a few of them.

[color=#3068FF][b]“Go,”[/b][/color] she said, willing it into being. She flinched away as the shadow phased into existence. It appeared like a dwarf made from grey clay, but without any notable defining features. It was one smooth surface, but despite it being made of clay, she knew it could move. Despite it not having any eyes or a nose or ears, she knew it could perceive its environment.

[color=#3068FF][b]“H-how’s that?”[/b][/color] She asked, clearly nervous. Despite all her efforts there was a pit in her stomach and she felt just a little bit nauseous.

The younger woman jotted down some observations and fiddled with some of the computer systems in the room. After a few seconds she gave a thumbs up to her colleague. The older man however did not share her assessment. He gave an additional request to Evelyn. “Good, but do you think you can give it a face? That would help us observe any emotional instability on the chance it experiences such things.”

[color=#3068FF][b]“Um...sure?”[/b][/color] At first she considered de-manifesting it, but before she could, the projection responded to her idea of a face and one formed. Its expression sent shivers up her spine because despite being made of clay its face was startlingly detailed and its expression was dead.

The ‘eyes’ in its visage turned to regard her, then the other two individuals. There was somehow life in those clay eyes, but despite that there was no feeling. The projection did not otherwise move its body, only its head and eyes shifted. Evelyn bit her lip and crossed her arms, holding herself a bit.

She took a step further away from the projection’s enclosure.

“Excellent.” The man’s tone was quite detached. He took up a pen and clipboard, and began hitting down notes. “Refrain from providing any orders. We wish to observe it for the next hour.” An hour. She’d never been asked to manifest it for that long. She wouldn’t be able to reform it for an hour too, troublesome if an emergency came up. Ah, but she was still off duty, so nothing should happen, right? Regardless, there was nothing to do now but wait while the experts observed and recorded observations.

[color=#3068FF][b]“A-alright,”[/b][/color] she replied and, after a few minutes of staring she found a chair and sat down. Having brought her phone, but not wanting to seem rude, Evelyn glanced over to Alina. She wanted to maybe strike up a conversation, but she also didn’t want to distract them from their work. After maybe five minutes she drew out her phone and took to distracting herself, it helped her ignore the projection.

The projection, at the same five minute mark, slowly started to display what one might describe as restless behavior. Its expression remained largely the same. Neutral. Dead, unfeeling, but its body language shifted somewhat. Where before it had stood entirely still, its gaze trained on Evelyn, not its carved eyes began to wander around the room. At first it took everything in, then mostly paid attention to the two adults, occasionally glancing in Evelyn’s direction. At around 7 minutes the projection began to pace, and at around 9 minutes it started touching the walls of its enclosure. While perhaps mildly interesting, the behavior was not particularly alarming...that was until roughly 11 minutes had passed.

At first nothing seemed amiss, but the researchers might notice that where the projection before had been restless, now it had ceased moving at all and was staring intently at the two. It had ‘carved’ an additional set of eyes into its mockery of a face. One pair was dedicated to Alina and the other to Bret. A minute of this passed and then in an unnaturally quick movement, the projection lunged at the wall closest them and slammed one of its clay fists into the material.

Its gaze was still dead, but its ‘mouth’ had affected what could only be described as a snarl. A hollow rattling began emanating from within the projection.

Evelyn stared, her phone forgotten, eyes wide. She could feel the projection and it felt...alien. Far moreso than normal. Was the connection weaker than it had been before?

The Tulpa drew back its arm, which had become malformed--the clay having redistributed itself into a club--and then slammed it against the barrier again. Its strength was perhaps greater than it ought to have been, despite its frame. With each strike, Evelyn flinched. After a minute of this the projection tried a new tact, redistributing the mass of its hands into hardened claws, which it began to scratch viciously against the enclosure. With each passing minute it became more frantic, beating anc clawing and eventually running--as much as it could--full tilt into the wall. The rattling sound became more frenzied and rose in pitch, becoming grating and loud enough to feel in the body more than just hear with the ears.

Evelyn, at this point had moved as far across the room from her tulpa as she could. Her hands were clenched tightly into fists, fingernails digging into her palms. She was lightly chewing the inside of her cheek as she paced nervously. Occasionally she’d mutter her mom’s reassurance under her breath, but it was largely drowned out by the sounds of the tulpa. The creature only became more violent as time passed, but eventually it stopped beating and clawing and ramming into the wall. Instead it had formed ‘eyes’ all over its head and thin antennae had sprouted from its ‘hands’. It could not alter its original design too greatly though for it never grew or lost any limbs or its head as it redistributed its mass.

It was also clear that it wasn’t generating additional material for sometimes portions of its body would shrink when it changed. The projection had taken to probing the enclosure, apparently seeking any gap. Any escape. The entire time it kept ‘eyes’ on Evelyn, Alina, and Bret and for the latter two its gaze was malignant and hostile, filled with violent intent. For Evelyn its eyes were neutral, blank, emotionless.

After the 15 minute mark there were no further noticeable escalations in its behavior. It would occasionally attempt to damage the enclosure, but would always abandon this to attempt to find some other means of escape. Evelyn could feel it and what she felt disturbed her. Not only would it no longer respond to her commands, it seemed to hold in its mind only two entwined ideas: Protect at all costs/Eliminate all threats.

Evelyn hated this. She hated being scared of it when it was part of her, if it was indeed part of her. She didn’t know that there was anything so violent or nasty in her. She hoped there wasn’t. She hated not being allowed to make it go away. She wanted to leave, but she refused to be insubordinate on top of being weak and afraid and unable to control her own damned power. Determination and loyalty were all she had and the former was a shaky thing now after everything that had happened.

The two scientists observed the entire ordeal from safety, with Alina measuring responses via a computer terminal and Bret taking a great many notes. The tulpa’s behavior was concerning to say the very least. However after 30 minutes had passed by and the thing’s activities hadn’t deviated for the last fifteen of those minutes, the senior expert decided to put a halt to the experiment. 

“That’s fine Evelyn. I don’t think we’ll be experiencing any further deviations. Please demanifest it and we’ll wait until you can manifest again. I have some questions for you.”

Even when one of them finally spoke, Evelyn didn’t relax, responding only with a tense nod. Looking at the tulpa she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Normally demanifesting the projection was a simple whim away, but now it was hard. It was like trying to claw her way to a lever in a room full of molasses and it was a big room. After about ten seconds, her face screwed up in concentration, her eyes closed, the projection suddenly flashed out of existence. A shiver went through her and the silver light of its shadow replaced where the projection had been.

The frail connection and the hostility had vanished utterly, replaced by the neutral responsive presence she was used to. However, as there always was, there was a distance between her and the projection and a sort of block in her mind where typically there was none. She didn’t bother setting a timer to tell her when it would be available again, she would know.

Shaking herself a bit she sat down, eyes on the ground. She’d brought her chair closer to the two scientists again. She couldn’t meet their eyes. [color=#3068FF][b]“Well...shoot,”[/b][/color] she said, awaiting the questions. Slowly she steadied her breathing and the frantic beating of her heart slowed.

The scientists had noticed the extra effort it had taken Evelyn to dismiss her apparition, and jotted it down in their observations. Once that was done, Alina took a seat in front of the young Ward, and gave a friendly smile. “I’m sure you noticed it growing more and more restless over time. Can you tell me what you felt through your connection during this time?”

Evelyn swallowed hard and glanced up at Alina. [color=#3068FF][b]“It was like it was disconnecting from me, drifting away. I...I think it stopped caring who was a friend and who wasn’t. I’m not sure. It seemed like,”[/b][/color] she met Alina’s eyes, [color=#3068FF][b]“...it seemed like it saw everything as a threat to me.”[/b][/color] She held herself, taking deep breaths again to calm down.

Alina nodded solemnly. “I’m sorry to hear that, sweetie. What about after you returned it to its base form? How has your connection been since then?”

Evelyn paused, checking, before she responded, [color=#3068FF][b]“It feels normal again. It...went back as soon as it demanifested.”[/b][/color]

“Well that’s good news at least.” Alina smiled, attempting to comfort Evelyn. “Our observations and the data the computers collected have led us to a hypothesis,” she began, “but we’ll need to reaffirm the theory over multiple sets of experimentation. Do you think you’re up for two, maybe three more rounds?”

Rubbing her arms a bit, almost as if she were cold, Evelyn swallowed hard and nodded. She’d do what needed to be done to figure out her power on a deeper level, even though it was unpleasant, even though it was scary. Seeing her projection...her power, so violent and unreasoning really did disturb her. [color=#3068FF][b]“I...um. We can continue, but we have to wait till it can manifest again,”[/b][/color] while it was true, Evelyn really wanted to put it off for awhile. It had been hard enough to watch the tulpa the first time. She could only hope that it would get easier….

And so the experiment continued for two more repetitions. The second was more or less identical to the first go around, with the same actions occurring at the same times and the same observations. On the third go round Bret and Alina had encouraged Evelyn to once again create the tulpa as something harmless within the confines of its cage, but also to give it orders. Simple orders, like turns, spinning in place, jumping jacks, and any other mundane, irrelevant ideas they could come up with.

For the first 5 minutes the projection followed her mental commands instantly and without and difficulty, but as the clock passed the 5 minute mark the projection responded to commands with a slight delay or with less accuracy, completing the tasks more sloppily and with an expression that made it seem...almost confused. Ten minutes passed and it was at this point that the projection gradually began to act strangely. At first it was at least mildly responsive to her commands, and would perform them with a delay or in a fashion that implied its attention was elsewhere. The entire time its gaze remained locked on either its enclosure or the non-Evelyn humans in the room. By the time 15 minutes rolled around, the projection was not only ignoring any and all commands, it was clawing at and attacking its enclosure with gradually mounting vigor. It was at this point that--despite any commands--the projection proceeded along a similar set of behaviors as had been noticed at a certain point following the ten minute mark in the two previous tests.

Oddly, Evelyn felt...less bothered as she noticed the trend. It seemed that there might be consistency in her power, even if that consistent result was in and of itself rather disturbing in nature.

“I think we can safely assume our hypothesis to be correct,” Bret spoke, jotting down some notes on his clipboard. Without looking up he said to Evelyn, “Go ahead and turn it off.” She complied.

Alina performed some final tasks on the computer consoles and then approached the young Ward. She bit her upper lip nervously, but recovered fairly quick. “Our visual-audio observations, as well as the brain pattern analysis in this room, strongly indicate a consistent pattern to your tulpa’s behavior based on the length of time it is existing in a corporeal state,” she began. Realizing this might be a bit too much jargon for the young woman, she backpedalled. “That is to say, it seems to be a normal behavior that happens after a set time limit while it’s manifested. Gradually it begins to ignore you as a new parameter kicks in. I can only assume that goal is to ensure your protection at all costs, as it showed intense hostility toward us administering the testing, but none toward you. It would appear to grow more zealous of this goal as time passes. About ten minutes by our timing.”

Bret stepped in. “According to our findings, there was no influence from any master-class parahumans on your mission, this is a natural behavior of your powers. One we should have discovered in earlier testing. I’m taking full responsibility. In any case, unless it becomes an extreme circumstance and is approved by your team leader or a senior Protectorate hero, I am advising that the director enforce a ruling that you are never to allow your tulpa to remain corporeal for longer than seven minutes. Just in case.”

Alina nodded in agreement. “Do you have any questions, Miss Chambers?”

Evelyn, though she was grateful for the second explanation, had followed the first just fine. Still, hearing it again did help hammer home the reality of her power. Not only did her power have to be inactive for as long as it was used, but using it too long had some...well, truly dire consequences. She shivered and bit her lip as flashes of the warehouse nearly overcame what nerve she had left.

Taking a deep breath she focused on Alina. Did she have any questions? Was there really anything to say? She frowned a bit then realized something, [color=#3068FF][b]“Wait...in the warehouse I don’t think my projection was active for more than 10 minutes. So...why did…[i]it[/i] attack,”[/b][/color] she dropped the sentence, a desperate look in her eyes. After a few moments of trying to find a different word, she sagged a bit, giving up, [color=#3068FF][b]“Why did it attack my friends?”[/b][/color]

Saying it outloud she realized something else. As guilty as she felt and as scared as she was...she needed to talk to Lillian.

“You’re absolutely certain that it hadn’t been ten minutes?” Bret asked more to confirm her question than to get an answer. 

“Let me pull up your own account in the official report,” Alina added. She went back to the computer console and took a moment to access the proper files, then took another moment to read Evelyn’s account. After a couple minutes, she snapped her fingers. “I can’t say for certain unless we get thinker confirmation, but I have a strong theory as to what happened. Immediately before your manifestation turned hostile, all the Wards reported seeing it struck by a blaster beam from one of…” she paused awkwardly. “By a blaster beam. And then you reported feeling a strange disorientation with your manifestation. It feels fairly clear to me that the beam did [i]something[/i] to force its nature to come about early.”

Evelyn nodded, [color=#3068FF][b]“Well...that helps. If um, if you can get confirmation I’d appreciate it. Anything else you need?”[/b][/color] Even though she was asking, it was clear from the faint nervousness about her that she wanted to leave.

Bret shook his head. “We’re all set. Just need to crunch some numbers, analyze the details, and call in some favors with some out of state thinkers. We’ll update you with any new observations.”

[color=#3068FF][b]“Alright. Um, thank you for your time,”[/b][/color] she said before making a hasty retreat from the room. As soon as she’d departed the room the researchers would notice something odd. The projection’s shadow expanded rapidly until it filled the room completely, then began expanding out the door as well. A moment later it vanished, or rather moved so fast in the direction opposite Evelyn that it appeared to. If they glanced at the file for her power they might recall that the projection wasn’t supposed to get much bigger than 12 feet in height and while its normal dimensions aside from height were not so limited, it still should not have been able to fill the entire room.

Evelyn, entirely unaware of the phenomena, though she had banished the projection as far away as possible again decided, headed for the front desk. Once she got there she asked the receptionist where she could find Lillian. The woman’s response however, dropped all of her hope and resolve in a bucket of acid.

[i][b]“Lillian isn’t accepting visitors right now. She’s currently with her therapist.”[/b][/i] Suddenly numb, Evelyn thanked the woman and turned, an empty look in her eyes. Her dad picked her up and neither of them said anything for the entire ride.

The only part of the receptionist’s response she’d heard were [i]“Lillian isn’t accepting visitors.”[/i][/hider]