It's not like she can just close her eyes and pretend none of it happened. There's some child abuser 3200 kilometers away, there's weird shadow beings, some guy hypnotized her into being not-gay, she can move objects with her mind - or make them pop out of control, anyway, until she gets practice.

Just saying that none of those things exist would just drive her nuts and make her delusional.

She'll have to look into this shit... The world's become a lot more dangerous, and if she's going to survive it, she'll have to know what the hell is going on in it.

A more chill pair of bunnies, Leah's never seen. She's grateful for them letting her cat play.

Hurting her parents, the bunnies, or Abigail, seems almost likely, given what she did with the fire hydrant. Wasn't even aiming for it specifically and it still went off... Which implies it has a ... aiming, mechanism. So no, using them near people is not a good idea, not until she can do it consistently without exploding stuff.

Then she can consider lifting her kitten with it, but only then. She'll probably go for a rooftop in town and practice there. Or maybe Alice will have a place she'd prefer they do it at. Will still have to aim away from her, of course.

She embraces her parents and tucks herself into bed. It's somewhat fitful sleep, turning a little at the images flashed before her. But there is the comfort that it's not happening to her, but to someone else. Especially someone mad enough to rope a bunch of people into kidnapping young girls.

Leah probably shouldn't feel this good about the way he just fell through the ground with a faceful of pepper spray, but, well... she does. Especially when she finds the dream twisting to her using her mind to help shove him into that hole. That's where it felt nicest. Vindication for what he helped cause to her.

It brings some fascinating connotations, sure, and very interesting hypothesis about the world and space and everything. It also flies in the face of everything's she has studied and quantified. If there are vampires and psychics and shadow people, then what else lies out there? How does it change the formula for gravitational bodies that someone's mind can alter it? What separates galaxies if creatures made up of lack of light exist? Are they dark matter?

It's disconcerting to imagine that years of study may have gone to waste because the world she is being taught to observe is just a mask or a facade on top of another. What are they sending astronauts and space probes at then?

If it's this bad down here, how bad is it up there?

She stares at her feet, sitting at the edge of the bed, come morning, clicking her tongue lightly. Well, for now, she can just carry on... She brings her plush rear off the covers, puts her glasses on, and heads back out to the comforting commonality of her mother's life.

The ability to lift two dozen bricks is great and makes her feel powerful. That emotional stress seems to put her power on a hair-pin trigger is, however, a significant drawback. It might be cause it's still tender and new? Or is that just part of it? She'll have to figure out if there's a way of... numbing it or something so she won't kill the nearest squirrel whenever she gets startled in the park.

As for missing her date, well... That one is a huge damn shame, because right now? Leah could really use some love. Might be for the best - what would an orgasm cause? Probably lift the bed and smash it through the nearest wall and out the window or something...

Then things get weird. Weirder. It's one (significant) thing to move stuff with her mind. It's another to be causing a phenomenon that she never witnessed before. For a bit, she thinks there's a vampire (dead people are cold right?) until the headache comes and she realizes it's coming from her. Thankfully, she ducked out on the excuse that she'll go 'check the thermostat in the IT room' for the students, and made her way to the stairwell to toss her power around.

Boy was she surprised when it just about slapped her in the fucking face and knocked the wind out of her! What happened?? What was that?!

She heads back to the class, hopefully... cleared. She'll have to text Shanti and Alice about this afterwards, cause she's kind of freaking out. It's like those superhero stories where their powers go critical and they become walking atomic bombs, like Captain Atom.

It's really bizarre science. But fuck, if she can figure out how it works, maybe she'll be able to fucking prove gravitons? Or dark matter? Or particles that no one knows about yet and only psychics can cause? Wouldn't that flip the scientific world on its head! Some sort of ... projection of particles that causes gravitons to gather around objects, or slow down electrons, or enervate existing ones, or...

Though before she can study it scientifically, she should make sure she can control it. Getting too excited right now might just trigger and episode and then she might smack one of her students in the face with it by accident. Right, she's a professor, so... teach, Leah, teach. "Right, where were we. Oh yes, the ring nebula."

One of the fields behind the Uni ought to do the trick. There's a space, the one with the old bird bath that no one goes to (besides birds) that ought to do the trick and give her some privacy to... what, freeze the water?

That's not something Leonard did, so... curiouser and curiouser.

Alright, then...! She stares at the water, seeing if she can't picture it reducing in temperature, slowing its energy...

CA6wgAGZ6d10
_{Measly 10 degrees lower.}6d10

That's a start. She tilts her head this way and that, as if there's some angle she can cant to like an antennae to make it work better. At least maintaining its cooler temperature seems rather easy, but she'd like to try and push it lower...

It's really quite interesting to watch. It's like watching footage about the ice freezing in winter that's been accelerated, except this is in real time being frozen by her mind. Even as she enervates the water, she feels invigorated herself. It's a bit disturbing on the one hand, but on the other, better water than people, right?

Though it does make he--"Augh!" She leaps back, spinning in place to face the cute girl. She glances worriedly at the fountain, having half expected it to just explode on the spot, but, apparently, she held her mind together. "Renée, holy shit, don't... do that."

_{...though also interesting that she seems to feel it being nippy, but Leah feels pretty comfortable, not hot or cold. Has getting this sort of power changed her body temperature limits? Is the inverse true if she walked in the desert? Summer will be an interesting time. Imagine feeling comfortable in winter AND summer? The dream.}

"Yeah, I'm okay, I'm okay. You just stopped my heart beating for a second. Was just ... lost in thought." She blushes and stands up straight again. Well, doesn't she look a bit daft now. "What can I do you -- ... uh... do for you?"

It takes her a few moments to kind of parse what's going on here. The cute scottish girl from the psych dept just asked her out for coffee, and she's ... some... thing... not quite human? Or magic? Or... what? Regardless, she doesn't cast a shadow, which makes her feet look a bit strange now that she notices.

So, wait, is it Renee herself, or is it that shadows themselves tend to do their own thing now?

She isn't going to be figuring it out by turning away from the opportunity to test the waters (plus she's cute, and a blonde, and she's into having coffee with weirdos who look at frozen bird baths? What's not to like?) so...

"Wasn't planning anything else besides watching the ice thaw. I'd gladly go for some coffee." When she starts to walk with her, she glances sidelong to the shadow, see if it follows or stays behind or, how it moves.

Warming the air around her palm, or at the ground, seems to do it. So, that, means... she sees shadows as independent creatures when she's got... psychic... juice... charged up, and when she doesn't, she sees them as the lack of light they apparently aren't?

That or she's causing herself a brain tumor and using psychic powers causes her to hallucinate. That seems just as possible. She'll probably request a cancer marker test, just in case.

Then Leah blinks, snapped out of her reverie, and she looks at her. "Aaand how, praytell, have you come across that tidbit? I mean, yeah, life's gotten so crazy in the past couple of days, some stuff slipped through my fingers before I realized it. But I didn't exactly announce it to anyone."

"I do feel bad for missing it, I am completely at fault, and I only have headaches, stress and some... life changes to blame." She makes a vague, helpless gesture. "But if she's going to go and rattle it off to everyone at a very public forum when it was the first time for a first date, thaaaaaat is a bit of a warning sign about what the relationship could be, so... Don't think I'll apologize more than I already did. I'm not really the beg type either.

"So, I'm down if you are!"

Leah grins at her. "Your date-fu is strong." She giggles in turn. "Sometimes simple works best!"

It's good to date again. Hooking up with Lisa and setting one up had been a boon, but, turns out she's a bit on the possessive and self-haughty side. Renee is pretty cool, and pretty. Will be nice to see if that can escalate.

For her powers, it's pretty bizarre to slow down the energy from one system to heat up her own, and then use that energy to then do things, like lift, push, heat up or cool down something else with more ease than normal. It implies there's something there, some particles of field energy that she can't see or feel outside of her new abilities, but is able to affect and project with her brain.

But figuring out how it works definitely makes it easier to use! Doesn't seem to be mutating out of control, too.