Beta:Moviemom44.


And here comes the small gratis added to this chapter - the profiles of my two characters I once posted on the IMDB X-Men board. I thought I could use them now.

Name:Beryl Lagner - Donaldson
Mutant Name:Soul
Classification:Omega mutant
Category:Neutral
Occupation:Student
Affiliation:Herself
Age:14
Sex:Female
Location:New York
Ethnicity:American of Italian origin (her mother's family was from Italy)
Hair:Black, curly
Eyes:Green

Powers:Her 'body' is composed of pure psychic energy, which gives her PSI powers. The girl is a high-level telepath, able to mentally possess people, because, as her mutant name suggests, she's just a soul with no real body of her own. She can control the bodies of others while their owners don't even realize what's happening to them. Sometimes, she chooses to have her 'hosts' lose consciousness while she uses their bodies. She is virtually immortal, because she is able to possess any human being or animal, potentially living this way for many, many centuries. She is also able to live on the astral plane as an entity of pure energy. Beryl is an Omega mutant even though there are still many things about her powers she must still learn due to her young age and her lack of experience in using them.

Beryl was born in Chicago where she also spent the next 9 years of her life. Her mother died in an accident when the girl was just three months old so she stayed only with her father, a petty criminal.

Even before her mutation manifested, Beryl was always different than her peers. She was a child characterized by a very high IQ - borderline genius - and a fascination with science. Contrary to this popular way of perceiving highly intelligent kids as silent, shy geeks wearing thick glasses and unfashionable clothes, Beryl never fit into this stereotype. Pretty, very outgoing and full of energy that seemed to never run out, she was spoiled by all adults. Thanks to her intelligence, she was very mature and sophisticated for her age and as a result all adults admired her. She couldn't help perceiving herself as better than others-smarter, more interesting-which made her very narcissistic and a bit too arrogant. This, however, did not mean she wasn't nice person to spend time with; she simply loved it too much when other people's attention was concentrated on her.

When the girl was 9 her father was shot by the mobsters he had contacts with. She was adopted by Ronald and Rosemary Donaldson - her father's friend and his wife who were living in New York. She was raised by them together with their two children, who were both younger than she.

When Beryl was 13, she started having severe health problems that doctors were not able to identify. Her foster parents spent a lot of money on specialists to try and help her, but still one by one her organs stopped functioning. The teen had problems with practically everything-walking, seeing, hearing. She suffered strong pains in her whole body. These problems would appear suddenly and then disappear again just as mysteriously, only to reappear soon after.

Three months after the first symptoms of her mysterious illness appeared, something suddenly changed. One day Beryl started to hear voices in her head. But she could tell it wasn't just another symptom indicating that something was wrong with her brain as well. It made her think she could be a telepathic mutant but she decided not to tell anyone.

Four days later another untypical thing took place and changed the girl's life forever. She was lying in bed when suddenly she realized she was looking down at her own body while her consciousness seemed to be somewhere outside, not restrained by the natural barrier of flesh. It was like she was an ethereal ghost, pure energy not needing her own body to survive. The shock made her go back into her body, but when she shook herself free of her initial fear, the teenager decided to see if she was able to leave her body again. And she did. After several experiments the truth started to seep into the brain of the newly manifested mutant – her mutation made her a being of pure psychic energy, able to live beyond her physical body. Her health problems were the first manifestation of her power. In fact she came to understand that her body was merely an empty crust and not something she needed to survive.

Her health problems subsided during the next days and all the doctors called it a medical miracle, since they didn't want to reveal the truth which was that they had no idea what had happened. They told her family it was all probably due to nerves or anxiety. Strange as it seems, they said, sometimes physical symptoms have a mental origin, especially in adolescent girls.

Beryl started to experiment with her powers in secret, trying to discover their kind and limits. It turned out they were in fact psionic in nature. First of all, she was a strong telepath, able to read minds and project her thoughts into other people's minds. Her telepathy also had another aspect, allowing her to possess people, control their behavior, erase their memories or create illusions in their minds.

Beryl Lagner – Donaldson is believed to be an Omega mutant although she still has a lot to learn about her power. Her physical body will obviously die one day but she – as the psionic entity her X-gene designed her to be - is immortal for she can possess others and live in their bodies. She is also able to visit the astral plane and live there if for some reason she cannot find a host.


Name:Athula Serasinghe
Mutant Name:Mind Traveler
Occupation:Retired carpenter
Affiliation:None
Age:82
Sex:Male
Location:Galle, Sri Lanka
Height:169 cm
Weight:82 kg
Hair:Thick, longish, still mostly black but with numerous streaks of grey hair
Eyes:Dark brown
Skin:Dark brown complexion
Powers:Ability to enter the astral plane

Athula Serasinghe is one of the few known representatives ofHomo superiorfrom Sri Lanka, but that isn't the only thing that makes him unusual, even for a mutant. First of all, born in the 1920s, when nobody knew about the X-gene or its carriers, he is one of the oldest mutants living now. The other thing that makes him unique is his ability which has been observed very rarely in mutants.

I wonder if any of you have ever come across the idea that all human thoughts, dreams and desires, especially those that are of great importance to their creators, eventually become part of the astral plane, where they remain forever embedded in their own small dimensions, like a fly in a piece of amber. Writers, movie directors, painters - anyone concentrated on an artistic vision - is included here. Every novel that was ever written, every movie ever filmed, even every fantastic dream created by a teenager's overactive imagination gets its own place somewhere in the astral world, inhabits its own small dimension. Only a high-level telepath on an astral journey is able to actually get into that dimension-a telepath or Athula Serasinghe.

Serasinghe doesn't show any other telepathic abilities. He isn't able to read other people's thoughts, although other telepaths have told him he is much easier to contact telepathically than an ordinary person, probably due to his mutation. His sole gift is the ability to visit the part of the astral plane that is created by human imagination, but, oddly enough, only the imaginations of others and not his own. He is also limited to only thought dimensions, as he cannot manipulate the fabric of the worlds he visits (or rather, he can, but only to a very small extent). He also cannot enter any other area of the astral world, such as the place where the dead go after death.

Athula Serasinghe came from a big, poor family living in a small village. He had no opportunity for formal education. He was smart but practically illiterate until he was an adult man. As a teenage boy he had to work hard. All his plans for improving the life of his family fizzled out one by one. His ability manifested itself when he was 15. He told only his parents about it but they thought him to be a liar because he couldn't prove it.

All he has to do to visit in these 'mind dimensions' is to think he wants to be in there. He can enter a specific world or a random one. Now that he can read, he can make specific choices more easily. There are so many exciting book worlds floating on the astral plane! His favorites are the world of 'Lord of the Rings' and a place called Boo'ya Moon, a fascinating place created by the power of imagination of none other than Stephen King himself in his book 'Lisey's Story.' Everything in these worlds seems real to Athula when he is there. He can take the role of an observer or decide to cooperate with 'people' he meets there by taking part in their adventures and talking with them. But, a vigilant eye can easily see that the people he meets are one-dimensional, behaving stereotypically like programmed 'automatons' with no minds of their own. After all, they really are nothing more than the shreds of someone's imagination. But they are real enough for Athula for whom one of the most exquisite pleasures of visiting those amazing worlds is the sex he can have with beautiful inhabitants. He always loved women and that didn't change when he got old. The soulless but pretty 'thought automatons' willingly allow him to do with them everything he wants. His favorite lover is always Galadriel, who, he admits, is much more beautiful in the world of J.R.R. Tolkein's imagination than her movie counterpart.

While visiting the astral, Athula doesn't need to eat nor sleep regardless of how much time he spends in there. Even if he's hurt in there he can always go back to his physical body (which during his travels looks like he is asleep). He doesn't know what would happen if he was killed while on one of his astral travels but prefers not to check this. He hopes though that if his physical body happened to die while he is on the trip to the mind dimensions, his mind would remain forever in there – a form of immortality. He plans to not come back to his body one day. He's an old man who hopes he'll be able to live forever as a pure thought in the thought worlds he was able to visit since he was a boy.

Recently old Serasinghe came to the attention of literary critics in the city of Galle where he lives. He moved there from the north of his country out of fear of the Tamil Tigers organization and their attacks on civilian targets. Through his association with a low-level telepath whose abilities include receiving other's thoughts, such as Athula's, and then projecting them into the minds of others, Serasinghe has been able to show the critics how famous writers imagined the characters and places they wrote about. In many cases, it is a surprise for the critics to see how much the author's visions differ from the movies based on their books. Athula receives money for sharing this information.

Athula Serasinghe didn't know that this ability he possessed since his early youth was a mutant power. He found out there were other people with supernatural powers, mutants like him, some time around 1970. He personally knows professor Xavier who contacted him after reading about a couple of mutants from Sri Lanka whose cooperation revealed the secrets of the minds of famous writers to the literary world. Athula is the kind of person who likes the pleasures of life and enjoys living life to the fullest. He's a benign, cheerful old man but from time to time he can be also cunning and greedy because his poor childhood and life filled with hard work taught him that if he didn't take care of himself no one else would do it. He's still a very robust man living a healthy lifestyle – he eats mostly fruit. He was raised as a Buddhist but later on in life he stopped thinking about religions even if he isn't a total atheist. Now, as an old man he walks with a limp and must use a cane.


"Meeting on the Astral Plane."

Afterlife, however rarely devoting any thought to this issue, wasn't the only one whose mutation endowed him with an amazing ability to explore realms lying beyond the plane of our reality. Although in every mutant, their X-Gene might show itself a bit differently, Bahame wasn't the only one able to do this.

The sickly smell of the roses having the intensive color of arterial blood filled the air. It was pleasantly cool even if the sun was in its zenith. Here, on the astral plane, the rules of the real world didn't remain in force and Beryl had already had enough time to get used to it. Now, after a year of exploring the worlds many times utterly different from the one she was raised in, the girl was an experienced astral traveler.

The teen looked around. Her gaze caught the sight of a field of roses stretching out, as far as her eye only could see and a tower built of some sort of black stone, towering over the flower field far away. The tower looked almost sooty; it was the stones it was built of that made such an impression, although the building, the dark silhouette of which vaguely loomed up in the horizon, was not a creation of human hands and as such couldn't be built of any stones. It was an illusion made of the delicate astral matter, mere creation of human imagination, like everything in here, even if the tower the girl looked at once could indeed exist at some point in time.

Beryl sat in the grass from which the roses were emerging, bending her neck to smell the flower growing close to her. Finally she could be alone, far from any people in the world separating her from them and their trivial problems. This place was her rest after the whole day spent in school and later in a mall with her giggling friends, pretending she was exactly like them. Laura, Susan and Nina were nice but so conventional, although certainly they wouldn't mind if they ever were to find out that their friend was a mutant. Beryl, although barely fourteen, was one of the most powerful mutants ever walking the Earth. Only reality warpers could say they surpass her, although the teen herself realized this only partially. Her health problems she dealt with last year weren't a symptom of a mortal illness as the doctors feared but merely the first step of her mutation emerging. After all her organs conked out one by one, her body finally released her true form – pure energy for which her body was only a container.

In respect of her powers, the girl resembled Afterlife who would be delighted to discover the person with a talent similar to his. Soul – that was the codename she assumed – was living energy able to exist for whole centuries. Using her mutant gift, the girl could explore the astral plane. It was still fascinating to her, not any less than when she was taking a trip beyond her body for the first time a year ago. In those realms – sometimes beautiful and sometimes scary – Soul had met many other astral travelers, mostly other telepaths whose mind powers were strong enough to take them in there.

One of them was waving to her now from the field of roses where he was standing. Beryl raised her head and smiled. She recognized her friend instantly although she didn't expect to see him now. Under ordinary circumstances this acquaintance wouldn't ever be made. Athula Serasinghe was from Sri Lanka, like Suvik Senyaka, that guy who was on Magneto's side, according to the TV reports. He wasn't a teen like herself. He turned 82 this year and as he often repeated to his young friend since they met a few months ago, one day he planned to stay in here, leaving his old tired body behind so he could wander the boundless worlds created by human imagination for the rest of eternity. His power allowed him to enter those parts of the astral plane that came into being in people's imaginations. Even if those people lived many millennia ago. Not many people knew that thoughts, dreams and desires became part of the astral realms where they remained forever like flies embedded in a piece of golden amber, but only if they were important enough to their creators. Every novel, movie, even every dream ever dreamed and every picture painted – all of them got their place in there – small pocket dimensions only those who knew how to do it were capable of getting into. Such a person was Athula Serasinghe. His power allowed him to visit them all wherever he felt like doing it, leaving his body behind, looking like the old man had just taken the final trip to the other world. No one who saw him while he was on these journeys - he appeared to be sleeping - would guess how close to this truth they really were.

"I see you found your way to the Dark Tower," said Athula, smiling at the teen. The old man's face reflected his contentment at being here. Having left his tired body, as always he took huge delight in visiting this amazing realm created by the pure power of the thoughts of all the millions of people who ever lived, even if their time on Earth or whatever place they resided in, had come to an end countless years ago.

"What's the Dark Tower exactly?" asked the teen, intrigued, as she smiled back at the gesture of salutation. The sight of the black tower far beyond, casting its irregular shade on the field of roses intrigued her in a way unknown to her yet. The girl felt like following it and checking what could be found inside.

"Someone hasn't heard of the writer from her own country?" giggled the old man in a genial way, making the deep wrinkles crossing his face smooth out for a moment. It seemed like Athula had just heard the funniest thing in the world.

"Well, I'm not sure what writer exactly you are talking about," reluctantly admitted Beryl. The tone of her voice suddenly assumed a bit colder temperature although only a trained ear would be able to detect it. If there was ever a thing Soul truly hated from the bottom of her heart, it was admitting there was ever a thing she didn't know.

"Don't even dare to tell me, girlie, that you are not familiar with Stephen King," The old man's smile widened even more, like he was dealing with a silly little child.

"Stephen King, sure, I know him. I read some of his works, "Beryl replied, "but I don't remember if I ever read the Dark Tower story. No, I never read it," the teen corrected herself instantly. "I have a very good memory, believe me on this, I always remember if I had to do with something or not and this Dark Tower isn't something I was ever exposed to."

"When you return to your body, the very first thing you should do should be go to the closest library. Or just turn the computer on and Google it," proposed Athula, still amused. "You, teenagers are all attached to your computers. I wish the net access existed when I was young. Then I would have found out much earlier that the thing I'm able to do is a mutant power. The old man's voice took on a dreamy, longing tone, like some sudden yearning for something, maybe his long lost youth, just woke up in his heart. "And when you are online, don't forget to check also 'Lisey's Story'," he suddenly added.

"Lisey's Story?"

"My favorite book by Mr. King. Maybe but for the Stand and The Talisman. And The Storm of The Century… but no, never mind, that one is just a screenplay for a movie. A very good movie, by the way. But it doesn't mean it isn't somewhere here as part of the astral plane, like everything else."

"I know those ones. But what is this 'Lisey's Story' about? Tell me. Or maybe, even better, you could show me the way in there," proposed the girl.

"In Lisey's Story there's found one of the most beautiful worlds I ever encountered. Boo'ya Moon. I won't speak about it to you as highly as I would like to because you could become disappointed. People your age can't appreciate the subtle beauty. I bet if I showed you the way to the Star Trek reality, you would like it much more. But I love this world. There isn't anything extraordinary about it. There are no people-well, maybe those freaks staring at that pound… but you'll see yourself what I meant. But when we are there, don't ever look into the pond... you could end up like those ones from the pond. But again, you will see on your own what I'm telling you about now when we arrive in there. But regardless of everything, remember this one thing - don't look at the pond. I think one day I'll leave my body to stay in here forever but staying in that very place forever isn't an option I'm fond of pondering for too long. But now let's not think of it. Do you want me to show you what Lisey's Story is about so you could see it with your own eyes?"

"Yes," Beryl answered simply. "Show me this Boo'ya Moon of yours."