This is the World Now, Isn't It? (Lihat/Open)

[Josiah Malkuth]

Josiah left the store a ways from his college with his backpack, several new watches and a camera. As he walked down the busy street, heading back for home, he started putting the watches on.

Two looked exactly the same, the kind that was dark and sort of plastic like and designed to be durable. He put those on his left arm above the watch he already had on. With his long sleeves, they wouldn't be visible unless he pulled it up. He didn't know if he'd actually need three at any time, but he thought better to be safe than sorry.

Another watch, he'd gotten more as a peculiarity than anything else. It was one of those old style pocket watches, circular with a long chain attached to it. A bland gray shade, it was probably some kind of steel or iron mix. It had caught his eye for some reason, and he decided to buy it just because.

That was quite an unusual thing for him. He almost never bought anything on a whim, which is why he had money to spare for these new purchases in the first place. With his new abilities, however, he pegged a need for them. The camera was for an experiment he'd figure out later. He couldn't really do anything on the street though.

Well, maybe a little exercise in perception couldn't hurt ...

[Lihat Tanpa Melihat]

Lihat was again outside of his normal path, something he'd found common these days. He was sure he hadn't a good reason to be in the area that he was in but for some reason he had got off the train early. Thinking back it was likely because of a bothersome girl that was usually following trying to learn more about him or stare at him or other odd things he felt nervous about her doing. He couldn't help but feel she was more interested out of emotion the pure curiosity. After she'd nursed him back to health when he'd met the sun at her play she hadn't been away from him for long. Now, however he was traveling the longer routes to his apartment more frequently and it had become bothersome. He wasn't fond of adding elements to a predictable future that would stir the pool of his readings.

This time as he walked through the stretch of streets he happened along a too busy area he didn't like. His appearance normally attracted attention, and more people meant more potential paths for the future. Lihat decided to head toward a unpopulated coffee shop near some random electronics shop with watches hanging in the windows. His thick black cloak skimming the ground as he walked briskly away from the troublesome crowd.

[Josiah Malkuth]

Taking three steps forward, as he lifted his foot the last time, everything slowed down. The people walking down the street, his own breathing, the beating of bird's wings flying overhead. He blinked, and it seemed to take forever. His foot touched the ground again, and everything picked up again. Another three feet, and the exercise repeated itself.

Rubbing his head, he stopped after a short while. He couldn't be certain the headache that started forming was from the magic he was working or from trying to adjust to the perspective changes he was trying to get his mind to adjust to. Both seemed like equally good candidates, so a break was probably in order.

There was a coffee shop on the other side of the street, amid the crowd of people. He wasn't actually one for coffee just yet, but some of those shops had rather tasty fruity beverages ... he waited for a break in the traffic before walking across at a leisurely pace, heading for the shop's entrance.

A thought occurred to him: he probably didn't need to wait for a break in traffic anymore. He ran a list of possibilities in his head. Speeding up himself to make the pass, selectively decelerating an approaching car, freezing a stoplight on red or speeding it up to green ... he made a small grin that he tried to cover, amused at his own ideas. This certainly made life a lot more interesting.

[R'pan Dalbe Ismel]

R'pan sat at his small table outside of the coffee shop, a steaming hot cup of coffee and an empty cup atop the table, the person at the register unsuspecting of the doubled paper cup she had given him, starring into his eyes, until he closed them and took his drink. R'pan starred at the steam curiously, using his magic to turn the veil of gaseous water into that of the image of a billowy cloth, smiling until an actual breeze blew his steam curtain away, causing him to sigh. He went on to make a more forlorn expression, not even the vibrant abundance of youth on this campus could detract his thoughts away from his first meeting with Ilreg in ages and what appeared to be his parting ways with Sesha.

"Could I have come across as any more weak... I shatter like glass whenever he's around, something Sesha no doubt took notice of. How does he enthrall others so, when acts so obscenely garish." R'pan said, until he noticed his frowning reflection in his cup of coffee, the murky, sepia color doing nothing for his visage. Grabbing the cup, he took a small sip, nearly retching and flinching at the heat of the cup outside the brim, unhappy with the result of this adventurous turn in trying coffee for the first time, his facial expression further making him sullen as he continued to stare into the cup.

"How do the mortals suffer this muck?" R'pan said, grabbing a napkin to buffer the heat between his own hand and the coffee cup, using his magic to separate the liquid water from the sugar, coffee, milk solids and other ingredients. "It smelled savory enough, but there are enough toxins in this brew, I'd swear these beings were here to commit slow suicide, tantamount to ludicrous this is." R'pan said as he slowly poured the water into the nearby empty cup, the solid mix of brown and white ingredients remaining in the bottom of the other cup, which R'pan promptly slid away from himself. He was about to sip the newly purified warm water until he felt a small disturbance of magic in the in the area.

Looking around, his couldn't pinpoint it to one person amongst the sea of students at first, but looking into his cup, he noticed the ripples of water from the wind slowly extending outward, and then speeding up inside the cup. It was then he noticed a young man, book bag on his should crossing the street, a look of mild concentration set upon his features, the source from which the disturbance emanated from. R'pan then set his sights on that particular mortal, swirling the water in his cup to further cool it down.

[Lihat Tanpa Melihat]

Lihat found himself flashing through futures one by one as he bumped and bumbled his way through the crowd. The very feeling of the many meaningless goals and futures to be attained annoyed him as he swayed about in a swoon as he is mind flooded. It was hard to foresee your next step when people imposed on your vision, Lihat hated being imposed upon. He couldn't control his power well, and crowds messed even his directing visions around the bend. He started to see skipping in his time-line. It was like his eyes went from nearsighted to farsighted and back again without warning. One moment there was a man about to be across the street and the next he was already across.

Lihat didn't understood, but the confusion of it ran him into a wall.
Literally, he ran right into a wall like a common blind kid without his cane and he could feel his pale skin flush beneath the dark hood and scarf. His glasses fell and he lifted them back to his face with his gloved hands as the crowd bustled about him. He brushed off the few worried bystanders who cared to know if the stranger who'd run into a large brick wall was really alright. Lihat was agitated knowing one of them would follow him if he wasn't harsh enough. Though in the end he managed to make it to the coffee shop unaccompanied.

After reaching a coming time where the number of people was limited he realized the fog cover on the horizon of his sight. Great, what is it this time? His mind found the unease of being near more of the unnatural creatures that wrecked his school play. He saw something familiar though, a particularly well defined future he was sure he'd seen before. He realized it was the wood runner he'd met on the campus a while back. He felt a mild excitement in knowing his interests found their way to him again.

Lihat made his way over to the guy's path and found that it was skipping and hopping back repeatedly and making it hard to find the timing he wanted. Lihat simply called out when he knew the guy should be near instead of attempting to figure out why he could get a fix on this guy's heading.

"Hey there," Lihat said cheerfully striding near Josiah. "Do you remember me? I think I may have given you a scare not so long ago."

[Josiah Malkuth]

His hand had just about reached the coffee shop door handle when a voice that he was acquainted with in some way, despite a lack of real familiarity. He looked left and right fast enough to almost make himself dizzy, before seeing the slightly-ominous figure striding towards him again.

"Do you remember me? I think I may have given you a scare not so long ago," he asked. It was the accent that he remembered, more so than the voice. But of course, that he was an honorary member of the eskimo club was what really cinched the memory. It's not a very popular club after all ...

Josiah looked left and right again, just to see if the self-proclaimed seer/fortune-teller was talking to someone else out of habit. Of course, he realized that presumes that he went around giving lots of people a scare - a possibility, but not one that actually applied to this scenario. He was talking to him, no doubt about that.

A moment of stunned nervous introsepction later, and he became aware of certain social graces that required you to respond when someone talked to you. Looking at them didn't really qualify as a response.

"Uh, yeah, I remember," he said, scratching the back of his neck nervously. "Sort of. I mean, I sort of remember." An impatient woman nudged him out of the way as she opened the door to go in, forcing him to step aside and a little closer to him. It was closer than he liked, but not uncomfortably so.

Exacerbated by his nervousness, his heartbeat started to pick up slightly, just enough for him to feel the difference. "I'm sorry, it's been a really long few days. I'm good now. Uh, sorry, is there something I can help you with?"

[R'pan Dalbe Ismel]

Sipping his water, R'pan took most of his attention off the young man causing the disturbance as he crossed the street, meeting another young man and engaging him in conversation. "Can it really be that hard talking to people, connecting with them with such ease?" R'pan asked himself, chuckling slightly as he though about the words, and the person in reference to them. He and Sesha had gotten along quite well, well enough for the type of people they were, but when Ilreg showed up, the smart and willful Sesha had had known for only such a brief moment was all but gone, her new found doll like subservience odd to him.

"I guess that's why I tried to defend her, to be crippled so easily, I guess wanting to defend someone so much like myself comes naturally..." R'pan said, draining the water and setting the cup back onto the table. He continued to think, refocusing his attention onto the two young men talking, uncaring as he began eavesdropping onto their conversation, which granted wasn't much, they seemed as unfamiliar with each other as R'pan was with the prospect of drinking coffee for pleasure.

"Humans aren't that much different from ourselves now are they. I pale to think of all the myriad ways we can be synonymous, and revel in my various petty superiority, but those two are and their awkwardness is quite profound, and refreshing I might add." R'pan said as he continued to listen, not hiding the fact he was doing so, although he was a distance from their conversation.