Mirandae

Crestwood Hollow - A Superhuman Roleplay

_{A t H o m e}

---

Home was quiet. Lisa had not returned from work yet. Esther sat in the kitchen with a glass of milk and some old cookies, scrolling through the feeds on her phone. The thing about the missing girl seemed to be trending everywhere. The thought of Esther’s father having something to do with it briefly entered her mind, but was discarded equally fast. He was not the kind of man that would kidnap random strangers. Despite everything that she had been through with him, he was a man of honor and discipline. Perhaps he was out there looking for the missing girl. It would not have surprised Esther if he actually was.

Esther had not bothered with changing into something more comfortable. She was going to attend the community search, anyway. Esther knew that her mother would object, but eventually she would give in and probably come along as well. Lisa did not fear much for her daughter when it came to—how should one put it?—worldly matters. She knew that Esther could make any mugger or rapist think that they are a pig with wings for the rest of their lives. No, the fear was Esther’s father. Lisa knew that he was still out there, and that he could take Esther away again. Even if it came to pass, and they met him, Lisa would not be able to do much about it, but at least she could live with herself if she tried to resist and save her daughter.

She wiped the screen of the phone clean and snapped a photo of herself. A wide grin along with a silly face was the snap and the text read: u goin to the search thing?😘😋. The picture and message was delivered to Rory. In the same instance, Esther’s mother came home. “Eshter? Are you home?” Lisa shouted with a hint of worry, as she removed her coat and shoes. The girl simply tapped the kitchen table three times with her first to make some noise. Lisa came to find her daughter, giving the girl a kiss on the cheek as always. “How was school?” the woman asked while keeping eye contact this time, unlike earlier that morning. “It was alright. They told us to go to the search thing for the missing girl,” Esther signed.

Lisa was always hesitant to let her daughter go out alone. Despite the obvious and underlying reasons, the woman was a bit of a control freak sometimes. There was so many things about Esther that could attract trouble, not to mention her good-natured heart. Whenever a serious subject such as this one came along, Lisa signed herself for her daughter to use the inner voice. Even if the woman understood sign language quite well, some of the more complex language was still difficult for her.

“Did your teacher tell you this? Or was it the whole school?” Lisa asked with stern expression.
“The teacher told us. Or, well, me, after class. I was at the bathroom when they talked about it,” Esther spoke with her inner tones.
“And this is something arranged by the school, or what?”
“No, it’s a community search. It’s all over social media. You haven’t seen it?”
“I work for a living, Esther. You know, to put food on the table.”
“I know, but most people do find a minute or two to take a break.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
“What? Why?” There will literally be hundreds of people there.” The expression on Esther’s visage grew sullen.
“That’s exactly the problem. You know what I’m talking about,” Lisa said and sat down opposite to her daughter.
“Mom, please—he is not going to be there and he wouldn’t do anything even if he was.”
“Sweetie, you don’t know him like I do.”
“And you don’t know him like I do. You don’t think he showed me what you two did together? I’ve seen all of it, Mom—it’s peanuts and shenanigans compared to what I went through, but he is not evil.”
“For someone with such empathy, you can be really cruel sometimes.”
A sadden frown came onto Esther’s expression and she decided to just leave.
“Esther, wait—I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. Please, sit down,” Lisa pleaded. Esther hesitated for a moment, but ultimately gave in. She gave her mother the stare of death.
“I’ll go with you. And before you object, I won’t disturb you if you want to be with your friends from school. If this search is a community thing, then I want to do my part as well. So, I’ll drive us there, we’ll stay in touch through texts, and then we meet up at the end and I’ll drive us home. Okay?”
“Fine,” Esther muttered, but she could not help herself to smirk a little. She loved her mother more than anything in the world, after all.

The two of them left home shortly after the minor argument. Esther could bicker about things with her mother, but they had never gotten into an all-out fight about anything. Or, at least not in Esther’s definition of the word ‘fight’. She had fought with her father on several occasions, however. That was what she would consider a real ‘fight’, if anything. Most of it had been conducted in the dreamworld wherein they could do almost whatever they wanted to each other without physically hurting someone. Esther was young at that time, though. One could hardly call it a fair fight.

The drive to the park was quiet. Lisa focused on the road and Esther focused on her texts. Some of her friends from her own classes would be there, but she hoped to see Rory as well. She was the only hyper-friend that Esther knew. But that aspect was not all that important to Esther. It was more about how Rory was as a person—radiant and alive—and as an artist. Esther had two other friends that she had made shortly after moving to town: Megan and Jennifer. They were all the same age and often hung out together. Both of them had learned a great deal of sign language already, but they also did not mind Esther’s inner voice. However, it had taken quite a long while before Esther had revealed her ‘hyper’ nature to them. There was a bit of a backlash from Megan and Jennifer, but a few days later they reunited.

_{T h e P a r k}

---

Lisa found a parking spot near the park. The turnout for the effort to find the missing girl had already grown quite impressive. Esther and Lisa made their way into the heart of it, slowing down as the crowd became ever so dense. The actual search had not begun yet. Esther texted Megan and Jennifer that she was somewhere in the middle. Lisa seemed to be distracted by something, as if she was looking around for someone. Esther leered at her mother with a mischievous expression, waiting for Lisa to catch that glimpse.

“What?” Lisa asked as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
“Are you looking for someone?” Esther signed.
“No, I’m not,” Lisa said and chuckled. Her acting was extremely poor.
“Yeah, right.”
“So, are Megan and Jennifer coming?” Lisa quickly changed the subject.
“Yes, I texted them. They’ll be here soon.”
“How is this organized? Is everyone going to search at once?” Lisa kept a dialog with herself while looking around. Being the business woman that she was, managing people and complex projects, things that appeared sloppy always stressed her out.
“Just relax, will you?” Esther signed as her eyes rolled around like carousels.
“I can’t, you know that. I’ll wait here with you until all of this begins, then we’ll part ways. Okay?”

Esther simply nodded at her mother’s carefully crafted plan.

Crestwood Hollow - A Superhuman Roleplay

Boop. Checking in. Works days going. Getting off today for the weekend. Doing a collab with Aeolian, but I'll do my own post as well to get up to speed.

Crestwood Hollow - A Superhuman Roleplay

@Aeolian
That works too! I'm typically not in anyone's time zone, so collabs become delayed back and forth either way.

Crestwood Hollow - A Superhuman Roleplay

@Prisk

Hey, wanna do a collab post with me to wrap up the bathroom scene?

I think it would be fun and easier that way.

Since there are less of us RPing now, I don't think we really have to wait to wrap it up and progress our characters at the same time.

Cheers!

@Aeolian

Sure thing! It would have to be through PM, though.

Crestwood Hollow - A Superhuman Roleplay

Boop. Checking in.

Crestwood Hollow - A Superhuman Roleplay

@Prisk & @Aeolian would you two like an opportunity to resolve your scene before I move us forward?

@Lord Wraith

I can do it retroactively, as a flashback parallel to the main progression. So, it depends on what @Aeolian wants to do. I don't think the interaction will be long, though.

Crestwood Hollow - A Superhuman Roleplay

Boop. Checking in.

Crestwood Hollow - A Superhuman Roleplay

Whew, breaking the rules on the first day of school. Good start!

Crestwood Hollow - A Superhuman Roleplay

_{T h e L o f t}

---

The usual scenario of acceptance rarely involved Esther’s hyperhuman ability. Nobody would ever know about it unless she actively showed it. However, her other disability was always the arrow being shot in the dark. She never knew where it was going to hit or how hard. Most people were able to accept it, but there was always one or two that had difficulties with it. The bunch sitting all around her were no different. Esther did not have to read their minds. Their expressions said everything that she needed to know. The eyes, the lips, the eyebrows—all of it told a myriad of words in their own right. A prime example was Felix Brooks’ reaction. Esther had seen and heard it all before, but hopefully it would go away rather soon. She gave the boy a brief glance that amounted to nothing. There was no point in acting offended. Hopefully, the participants of this class would overlook Esther’s minor setback in everyday life.

The modest bickering between Marcus Weston and Noah Gallagher was slightly amusing. A few other students seemed to think so as well. Although, Esther mostly agreed with the teacher in that the comment was not productive. She was not quite sure yet what her position was towards comments or jokes about father figures. Memories of the dream the previous night occupied her mind for just a moment. However, Esther returned to the material world upon hearing the teacher speaking of the ‘Holocaust’ and the typical notes on equality. The things that Esther’s father had taught her about that war and those events were quite different from what most people said about it. She had seen memories that belonged to her grandfather, who had been there. Whether those visions were true or false remained to be uncovered, as Esther had never fully figured it out. Either way, the topic of Germany during that war always made her uncomfortable.

Luckily, the discussion was interrupted by the rather delightful appearance of Aurora Zhang followed by Benjamin Hope excusing himself. Esther eased down from the teacher’s additional question, as there were too many things happening at once. She did not have an answer, anyway. The only ‘rule’ that she knew was her own about not entering peoples’ minds at random to snoop around or speak to them. However, if there was something that Esther had to change, then it would be to forbid hyperhumans altogether. She would never say it out loud, of course, and she did not know how anyone would go about to make it happen. It just seemed that the last thing the world needed was another ‘kind’ of people to deal with. Esther knew too much about people who thought themselves better than others. She had grown to dislike them all, equally. The only difference now was that the ‘special’ people were objectively special. It was not based on some ancient race or decree by gods—it was real.

Moments later, an all too familiar surge hit Esther. Such was the nature of her curse that some of its aspects could not be ‘turned off’. They were sporadic and unpredictable. One of those chaotic elements was her increased sense of empathy. It had always been difficult for Esther to explain exactly what this higher form of that common human trait entailed. The best she could do was to compare it to a gut feeling—it was half psychic, half intuition. The psychic part of it was the one that she could not control. Esther could randomly tap into a person’s state of mind without also hearing their inner thoughts. This part of her ability made public places quite a challenge for her at times. Luckily, movement and distance played into the effectiveness of the empathy. However, this particular instance, this particular surge came from nearby and showed no sign of moving away.

Esther’s curiosity peaked. She discretely excused herself with a modest gesture to the teacher. Outside in the hall, Esther was met by a rather well built boy that seemed to be in a hurry. He did not even spare her a glance. It became painfully clear that he was the source of her empathy surge, as he passed her by. However, she did not have time nor courage to confront him about it, so there was nothing left to do other than return to the class. Just as she was about to turn around and head back, the surge hit her again—it was still there. Esther continued down the hall and halted for a moment to feel where it was coming from. She briefly closed her eyes and ventured into some unknown realm within her mind. Her hand stretched out to touch the outer door of one of the bathrooms. It was the boys’ room.

Much to her relief and horror, Esther found one of the students of the class in distress. She already had an idea of what had happened, but also wished not to pry any further. Esther’s motion was slow and graceful, extending a gentle hand to touch upon the boy’s arm. It was her signal to him of her presence. The expression on her visage was mellow, yet of worry and concern. Unfortunately, Esther did not have her notebook with her. She had left it on her seat back in class. The boy most likely did not know sign language, and there was no way for Esther to ask ‘the question’. At any time when she had to or wanted to speak to someone telepathically, Esther always asked if it was alright with that person. However, there were exceptions as there are to all rules. She hoped that he would forgive her.

“I’m so sorry to do this, but are you okay? What happened?” Esther’s inner voice echoed throughout his mind, yet her lips did not move.

Crestwood Hollow - A Superhuman Roleplay

Boop. Checking in. Lots of spare time coming up in the following days.