Cygnet 1.2

{Name for a young swan.}

The cafeteria adjoined a small common room, dominated by a collection of well-worn, saggy couches and easy chairs facing a television- a foosball table in the corner, and a pair of old vending machines. There were chairs arrayed around two small tables, and a single small skylight that recessed so far into the ceiling that almost no natural light actually made it to the floor. A small bookcase with a collection of extremely dated magazines and very dog-eared books stood lonely and neglected in the far corner.

This was the sunroom.

A short, potbellied man in orange sacked out and snoring on one of the couches. A little girl in blue with wild blond hair… sat on the ceiling beside the skylight, idly kicking her legs in the air. I blinked owlishly at her a moment and looked away. I sat down looking out at the cafeteria as the residents filtered out, experimenting with touches of my power. I wasn't familiar with any of them, so it didn't give me much. Mimi left with one of the orderlies, darting me a furtive glance as she did so. She waved a little and I gave her a smile.

I was supposed to meet a patient, Sadboy. Doctor Yamada had said he had a different meal schedule, he would be coming back from one of the workshops after lunch ended. I had the impression this was an exercise intended to get me to reach out to the other residents. I didn't see him. I didn't know how to feel about that- I had a group therapy session scheduled later and didn't know how to find it. Maybe it was a scheduling error?

I fretted, turning that thought over.

Then I saw him, and he stuck out like a sore thumb. Sadboy was one of those stringy boys, the kind stretched out by adolescence; still gawky, all elbows and knees. His hair was cropped very short, and he looked tired. There was no way to put it politely. He looked tired, had faint bags under his eyes, and his skin had that unhealthy pallor that accompanied exhaustion.

I considered offering my hand, but my experience with Mimi had made me hesitant.

"Hey."

He gave be a hesitant, shy smile, "Sadboy?" I asked.

"Uh, yeah. Um. Auspice, right?"

I cringed. I hadn't picked the name, and it had been another jarring shock following my hospitalization and my… escape attempt. Every kid that imagines what it would be like to be a superhero likes to imagine a cool, imposing, and suitably noble cape name for themselves.

I must have shown my disappointment more severely than I'd thought. "Oh." He looked horrified, "Did you want me to call you something else?"

"No, no, it's fine."

He relaxed a little.

I'd heard from Doctor Yamada that codenames were important. One of the first things we had discussed was what I wanted her to call me. My name, or the cape name I'd been issued, or something else.

She'd also asked if I wanted to call her Jessica, but it felt strange to call my Doctor by her first name.

"Is it a big deal?"

Sadboy fidgeted, "Sometimes. Uh, some guys are really sensitive about that kind of thing, because they don't have a lot of control over their lives here. What they're called is a big deal. Cape names are one of the things the Doctors have to respect."

"And we have some control of our codenames?"

"Yeah. Some."

I hmmed at that. "So… why Sadboy?"

He shrugged, eyes dropping, "It wasn't taken… I wasn't in a good headspace. Changing it just seemed dumb."

Oh.

I tried to smile, "Okay. Well, I know someone is going to start calling me 'spicy' eventually, and I'd like to put that off as long as possible. So, call me Taylor."

Sadboy's eye widened and he spoke slowly, "You need to be careful with your real name. We're given cape names for a reason. Some of the patients used to be villains."

I thought, if Mimi was a villain, I think I could live with that. Sadboy… I touched on my power for a moment to confirm a suspicion. He had… some kind of Thinker power?

If I had to make a guess, Sadboy was either a rogue, or he had been institutionalized shortly after gaining his powers- before he could make the jump to either hero or villain. That was odd; Yamada had said he had been a resident longer than I had…

Unless this was about helping him out of his shell just as much as getting me adjusted. Hmm. That was disconcerting. I… I did not like the idea of being trusted with something like that. I'd never done anything good with my powers. Not really.

That might be getting into too many layers. I shook the thought away.

"Well, what are we doing first?" I asked, attempting to get the orientation back on track.

"Um, well, You've already seen the cafeteria, and this is the sunroom. If you ever need some time to yourself it's always quiet in here, and it's never really, uh, crowded." Sadboy said, "There is a recreation center and a computer lab. I'll show you were they are…"

"Hey!"

I flinched, and turned so quickly my neck twinged. It was the girl from before- the one who almost knocked the overweight woman over. She crossed half the cafeteria in a single startling, flying leap, bouncing a little in the landing. She rocked back on the balls of her feet -and leaned over way, way into my personal space. She had brown hair, curly, done up in a ponytail, and an energetic and heavily freckled face, everything was moving. She twitched like she couldn't sit still.

She was wearing blue at least.

"Um." I said, leaning back, trying to reclaim some personal space.

"You're new, right?" the girl repeated loudly, "You are new, right?"

"Uh. Yes?" I managed, trying to back up. She followed me.

"Yeah, you'd have to be, talking to Burnscar. I mean, seriously, she's called Burnscar for a reason, you know. She's killed, like, twenty people. More people than Fusillade and Gator- and they were actual villains, you know? Gator almost went to the Cage. I guess you could have a really badass power or something. Are you invincible? Hey, what's your power?"

She stopped talking and stared at me expectantly.

"Um." I blinked, "I'm a Thinker."

She made a face, and leaned back, and I breathed a bit easier. It made me feel a bit less crowded. "Seriously? That's it? What do you do?"

"It's like… a localized… clairvoyance? Sort of?" I hesitated. Doctor Yamada hadn't told me to talk about me power- but she hadn't told me not to either. "It's a bunch of little things, and they're all sort of… tied to how close I am to something."

Heather frowned. "Oh, so you were safe because you were standing right next to her?"

"Not exactly."

She shrugged, "Kitchen sink cape? Whatever." She fidgeted, kind of… shimmied in place

"Oh. Hey, I'm Heather. The Doctors call me Glassboom."

"Uh… Taylor." I squeaked.

"Uh, hi…" Sadboy stammered, "H-hi Heather."

Oh. Oh my. That was adorable. His entire face was blushing, his ears too, and he kind of did this thing where he scuffed his feet.

"Oh. Hey Nick." Heather said, flippantly.

I guessed that not everyone was big on the cape names here. Sadboy- Nick wilted a little bit. That felt familiar, I guessed that he had been in love with the idea of being a cape. I could understand that. I wondered if I talked about capes like that before I triggered, if that was how I'd sounded.

Sometimes Emma and I'd told each other elaborate stories of what we'd do if we ever got powers. That all seemed so far away now. I'd wanted to be Alexandria; I'd imagined what it might be like to fly around righting wrongs, beautiful and strong and fearless.

"Nick's going to show me around." I said.

"Oh, sweet, getting the tour, right?" She glanced at Nick, "You're showing her around, right?"

"Uh, yeah!"

"I'll come with." Heather decided. No one else had say in the matter.

We headed for the hallway, Nick leading the way and heather bouncing… literally. She was jumping up and landing on her heels, and actually bouncing. "Hey, what's your power?"

Heather grinned, and kicked off the floor, bouncing in place like some kind of superball person almost up to the ceiling. I expected the floor to dent, she wasn't built heavy or anything but it felt like there was real force behind those impacts. Which was weird, because it didn't look like there was real force behind those impacts.

"Isn't it the best?"

"Uh, wow." I smiled nervously, it was a little unsettling how casually she did that. Was she allowed to just do that? Wasn't that dangerous?

"Yup!" She bounced again, on the floor, "Kinetic reflection."

A lightbulb went on in my head. When force is exerted, it goes two ways, equal and opposite. Hit something and you experience a counterforce. Newton's law. If that force was reflected, or she was immune to it, that was an awesome Breaker ability.

"It is, right? I can jump tall buildings in a single bound and shit. It's awesome!"

I could tell without even looking that Nick seemed to think so. "Where are we going first?" I asked, in an attempt to restart his train of thought.

"Oh." He said, "Uh, the Computer lab."

...

Thinker denoted any power that dealt with sensory or cognitive abilities. Anything that meant you knew things that you could not in a mundane way. That was cool, I guess. It didn't make me Alexandria, but it was mine, it was special.

I could get better, then I would be a hero, using my powers to help everyone. Make a difference.

Nick… had something to do with emotions, or maybe one emotion, singular. If I was right, it was a lot more offensively-oriented than mine. He had a nervous tick- of flinching when he looked at people. Perceptually-based, I think, and I don't think he could turn it off.

It was interesting to watch him interact with Heather, I studied both of them on the way down, mostly just watching, using my power to tease out more.

"You've both been here for a while, right?"

"Yeah, about a year. Heather said.

"Uh, about that long for me too."

"Were you heroes?"

"I was," Heather said, "For a little while."

I hesitated. I wanted to ask the question, but it felt like it would be impolite to ask. Heather answered my question without my asking. "Up in New York. Drove director Armstrong up the wall. I had a couple, uh, incidents." Heather said, still smiling, but not talking as loudly as before, "And, I… uh, tried to body-check a bus. Almost died."

She shrugged, still smiling, still bouncing on the balls of her feet. I tried to return the smile, it ended up a bit strained. "And you, Nick?"

"Uh… no." He mumbled, "I, uh. I came right here… After."

Well. There was not much I could say to that, was there?

The computer lab was actually kind of impressive. There was a collection of computers- actually rather nice ones, each separated by booths. For the most part, it would not have been out of place in a school library or college campus. The room had a high ceiling and a nurse's station, and I suspected that the booths were reinforced in ways you wouldn't find on a college campus. The entire room was filled with the sound of computer fans.

There was a sizable placard on the wall noting usage rules and warning that computer privileges could be revoked for bad behavior or at staff discretion at any time. There was a pocket-size library tucked into one corner of the room with a pair of easy chairs, a small coffee table covered in gouges, and four shelves of books.

"Yeah. It's pretty restricted though." Heather said.

"Well, you can get on PHO. And youtube. Uh, that's pretty cool. And there's a video library. You can reserve a timeslot for one of the movie rooms to play them too." Nick said.

I swallowed, "I can email my mom?"

"Uh, yeah." Nick said.

Yeah, that was a plus. I'd be doing that later.

"Okay!" I pasted a fake smile on and tried for cheerful, but probably came off as creepy, "What's next?"

"Um, the exercise room."

This took us down the hallway, and through another security checkpoint. This one did not require a card check, but did have two men in armor and full-face helmets. We had to sign a register.

"Do you ever get used to the security?" I asked.

"What?" Heather asked, "Oh. Yeah, that's something you get used to. There are four checkpoints inside the wing, but you don't have to be ID'd unless there's a lockdown. You can go outside the wing, too, but that needs ID, and a day pass and sponsoring from senior staff." She waved a hand vaguely in the direction of the guards, "You get the idea."

The gym had about a dozen running machines- treadmills, stationary bikes, step machines. A couple weight machines. Not much else. Free-weights were out, according to Nick, because they could be used as bludgeons. Apparently, this had been a problem in the past. There were four other patients present, each with a supervising staff member.

There was a big double door on the far wall, which Nick explained lead to a recreation court. It was usually outfitted for basketball, Heather explained. "Do they always have attendants for exercise periods?"

"Yeah." Heather said, "It's kind of annoying, and it limits how long you can work out, but at least we get to use the gym."

I blinked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, we're all low security. Hence the trendy blue scrubs. It means we get to move around some." She pointed to mine, "There are a couple patients with orange that get low security clearance too, usually Tinkers, or Thinkers like you. Because they're less dangerous, or directly dangerous anyway. Or capes who have a dangerous power but aren't dangerous themselves. Or heroes."

We left the gym and moved back out into the hallway, one of the group rooms was our next destination- back towards the cafeteria and the patient rooms.

"And Mimi?"

"Burnscar gets to move around a lot, because that's the only way to keep her under control."

I frowned. "She doesn't like that name."

Heather shrugged, "Gator, Hellish, Wendigo, Lizard Prince, Victim… Burnscar. Some of us here have names you'd better remember. There are a couple too dangerous to lock up in high security or isolation."

"She was… nice." I felt obligated to defend her, she'd seemed really lonely, and she had been nice-ish.

But Heather just laughed. "Good for you, but… well. If Burnscar is in a down mood she just gets all mopey if you call her that, if she's in an up mood… well, he's lucky you were there. Most of the doctors only call her Burnscar when they need to get her to do something in a down mood."

Wait, what? I frowed.

"Anyway, she's up and about in a low-sec wing because she cooperates sometimes. If she didn't she'd be kept in special containment, down below."

"Down below?"

"Special containment, and high-security. There's more than just parahumans, too. A couple Jamestowners. Some people who are under lingering effects from powers that transformed them or altered their minds."

"What are Jamestowners?"

"Oh." Nick said. That was interesting, I didn't think that someone could actually turn green like that. Nick, I was discovering, was very open with his emotions. I hoped he wasn't sick right here. "Jamestowners are… I think he's a Tinker? He's a villain, a big name down south. Somewhere in the Florida, Georgia, Alabama area. Somewhere down there. I don't remember much. Jamestowner's got some kind of thing with radiation, turns people into these big monster-things. If you ever see a big green monster that looks like it's got tumors for biceps, run. They're cannibals."

"Yeah," Heather said. She wasn't green like Nick, but she looked unsettled all the same.

I was preoccupied with the idea that these things could apparently escape. Then another thought occurred, my heartrate increased. "Are there any… aliens?"

That got a reaction. They glanced at each other, then back at me. "You mean stuff from the craters?" Heather said.

What I meant was definitely 'stuff from the craters'.

Back before I was born, back in May of nineteen eighty-four, there was a huge meteor shower. Meteorites impacted all over the globe. Parahuman powers started showing up around that time. The nearest was a big one in north Michigan, bordering Lake Superior. It had hit along the shoreline, so it was flooded out, and the bottom of the crater was inaccessible. There were a couple like it, big ones, a couple in Russia. The biggest was almost ten miles wide. It was generally agreed that the meteor shower and powers had a connection, but nobody could agree what that was.

And it wasn't like nobody had tried, either. There were expeditions made to investigate the craters. Sometimes people came back, sometimes they came back and they were crazy or worse, sometimes they didn't come back at all. And sometimes… things wandered out. The Mississippi Crater had spawned the Machine Army, and the township of Freedom California was trapped in a dreamworld that was generally agreed to have originated in the Rocky Mountains Crater.

Some people thought that was where the Endbringers came from. It was definitely where a lot of them went. But I didn't voice that thought.

"I don't know." Nick said. His voice was very small.

The group room was one of a cluster of offices housed at the far end of the wing. Like the rest of Alchemilla, painted in inoffensive and enervating pastels.

Aside from that, it was surprisingly plain. Plain blue carpet and off-white walls. The room itself was very bare, with only a circle of steel folding chairs. It looked… more mundane than I had been expecting. There were no motivational posters on the walls, though there was a bare and unadorned black folding table in one corner.

There was only one other there, a girl in orange scrubs, with the palest complexion I had ever seen. If Mimi had been pale, this girl was porcelain. Her skin was bone-white and so thin I could see the blood vessels around her eyes and in her eyelids, like two black eyes- that had to be fairly severe albinism. She had long platinum blonde hair that reached to her knees and made me vaguely envious.

She sat with a perfectly straight back, and was absolutely, perfectly still. I had never imagined someone could sit so perfectly still. Staring straight ahead without any expression whatsoever.

It was intimidating.

But I remembered how surprised Mimi had been that someone had taken the time to even sit with her at lunch. Doctor Yamada had said that there were two ways to approach my stay: I could work to get better, and help those around me to do the same, or I could wait for things to get better. Only one of those options gave me control over my life. So, I lifted the filters in my mind and looked at her.

What I found was one of the strangest experiences in my life. The first thing provided was that she was not alive- or, many of the usual signs of life were absent. No heart, no blood. Her skin was pale, not because she had not seen proper sunlight in too long, but because it was not natural skin. It was a bizarre- the only descriptor that came to mind was 'polymer weave'. But that did not do it justice. Living tissue and some kind of ceramic or plastic seamlessly comingled. It made my head spin.

It was more than that too- she had once been human. Some of her still was, but now blended in a construction that was almost biological itself.

"-aylor?"

I blinked. Heather was waving a hand in front of my face.

"What?"

"You zoned out. It was creepy."

I blinked a second time. "Sorry. Um. Let's-" I gestured towards the seats, the ones beside the strange- was girl the right descriptor? I couldn't guess her age.

I caught sight of her hands, they were slightly oversized, segmented, like a porcelain doll's; the most obviously artificial feature I had seen.

It made me nervous, but I wondered…

I had never been good with people, especially new people. It'd earned me something of a reputation as Emma's silent shadow at school.

"Taylor, you can't sit by Charnel. And she's… not quite all there, you know?" she hedged nervously.

"Violent?" I asked, leery.

"Shank you soon as look at you! She's got claws and fangs and she can bench press a car. Plus, she can set you on fire with her brain and spit acid." Heather said earnestly.

I stared at her a few seconds, mouth open a little. A moment later she dissolved into giggles so energetic she nearly slithered off her seat, "Oh, your face! Hahah!" I huffed and tried to glare at her, but it was funny. Kind of.

I could have probably avoided gaping at her antics, though.

"I got you!" She chortled, halfway to the floor, "I got you good!" Heather sobered up, "But, seriously, she's one of the bad ones."

I scowled a bit harder, "She's right here."

"Yeah, but she's not all there, you know?" Heather grinned back.

I started to get a little bit mad at Heather, and opened my mouth to say something, when it occurred to me that she was here for a reason, and I had not asked what that reason was. My indignation on Charnel's behalf kind of deflated and I just felt pained for both of them.

Nick cleared his throat, "Uh, what Heather means is, Charnel is someone who is… a lot less stable."

Doctor Yamada had told me that the group I was being introduced to was one that was one of the safest, which I was beginning to suspect meant 'controllable', or maybe 'predictable', I think. So Charnel ought to be safe enough. Probably.

And, she was right there. What Heather and Nick had shared enforced the suspicion that Mimi was not unique. Maybe not even particularly uncommon. I knew what it was like to be alone in a crowd, and the idea struck uncomfortably close to heart.

Emma had always been the outgoing one, the one that took the lead talking to other people. But I was going to get better, I had to if I wanted to go home to Mom and Emma.

And so, without preamble, I sat down next to Charnel.

"H-hello."

Charnel turned her head and looked at me- her whole head turned, her eyes didn't move. And the rest of her remained perfectly still.

"Hello." I said again, a little louder. I hoped it didn't sound as nervous as I felt. I also hoped it was my imagination, how quiet it had become.

"…Hello." Charnel replied softly. She had a smooth, dry voice. I had almost expected something mechanical but it was melodious and warm, while her face remained immobile.

"My name's Taylor." I said, "What's your name?"

She stared at me, "I do not recognize you. You are new. I am sorry, but are you one of the therapists?"

"No."

"I would be most happy to speak with you." She said. "But I am not supposed to."

She did not look away. The silence stretched on long enough that it became awkward, and I wilted. Squirming under her stare, I squeaked, "U-um, why?"

"It distresses the doctors." She said.

"…Why?" She did seem a little eerie, but not particularly dangerous. Maybe she had been a villain, but that hardly explained the doctors telling her not to talk to the patients.

"I obey what I am told to do." She said, "And answer any questions asked me."

"Oh…" That, that explained some of it, I guessed. …Sorta? …Well, not really. "I'm sorry."

"I do not mind answering your questions." Charnel replied, with just a ghost of a smile.

"I am not a human. I am kept here to study. The doctors don't like it when I talk to the other patients." She smiled that small, secret smile again, and she repeated: "But I do not mind answering your questions."

Heather and Nick were still standing by the door, watching with rapt fascination. "Would you like to meet my friends?"

"I have met Glassboom and Sadboy."

"No, I mean, would you like to talk with them. Be friends with them. Have them talk with you and treat you like a person?" Why would she be kept for study anyway? I could imagine the Tinker implants being worth study, but why would she be here, in a group with other patients then?

"I am not a person."

I stared at her. She… couldn't actually believe that, could she?

"You are. We are. We're all people."

"Not people. Not one of us are people, here."

"What do you mean?"

"We are swords and knives. But, here: most of us are bent, or rusted. But we might be useful someday, so we are kept, on the chance we can be used." I frowned, but she finished the thought without arguing, "You will understand."

I didn't know what to say, "Are you… okay?"

Her eyes looked right through me. "I am. You will be too." She smiled, faintly.

Other patients arrived. The heavily built man who had been sleeping in the sunroom, and a bald teenager in blue- who was so thin I'd almost call it emaciated, and startlingly pale. So many of them were pale! He introduced himself enthusiastically as 'The Great Cidersong' gave me a wide smile and proposed we be friends.

I think he was seriously ill, but I wasn't sure- it might have had something to do with his power. I couldn't be sure because even though he shook my hand, he did so with enough energy and enthusiasm that he nearly dislocated my arm. He bounced around the room less literally than Heather did, talking animatedly with everyone, gesturing and waving his arms like windmills. Heather and Nick both knew him, and I was surprised when the previously morose Nick actually cracked a smile, and laughed at his antics.

I sat and watched, next to Charnel, and the heavyset man Cidersong had come in with. The guy in orange that'd been napping in the sunroom. He leaned back in his seat and just watched them. After a few minutes he turned to me, and gave me a wink. "Thanks for being a good sport with Benny."

I blinked. "Uh, sure?"

He grinned, big white teeth in a dark face, "Not likely to get a warm welcome beyond this," He grinned, "Welcome to Alchemilla."