Cursing a Gift (Open)

[owtlaw]

'Why won't he call me?'

'I shouldn't have smoked so much last night. I am going to flunk my midterm hard'

'That's it, I am going to blow the place up. They wanna treat me like dirt? I swear to God that I will show them'

It wouldn't stop, it hadn't stopped for days. No matter what Joshua did, no matter how much alcohol he drunk or how much be bled himself, the voices refused to stop. They forced their way into his skull, screaming at him at every available moment. It made it impossible to sleep, to focus on a single action for longer than a few seconds. The Alchemist could not fathom a reason as to why this was happening to him, never imagining that it correlated with his horns. They had been there for so long, never causing a single issue. It would be like him assuming that his right arm were causing the voices.

Most believed that the ability to read minds would be a gift, something which would allow for blackmail or to protect those they love. No one would ever think that it could destroy your life within days, crippling you worse than any physical altercation ever could. Joshua had not shown up to his job since this had begun, had ran out of class like some lunatic as his classmates attempted to focus on an exam. He went from a quiet young man, easy to overlook as he walked down the street with a book tucked under his arm, to what one would assume to be a drunkard. His book was now replaced by a bottle of gin, his normal lab coat now frayed across the bottom while random blotches of dirt attempted to form patterns along it.

"Leave me alone!" Joshua shouted as he reared back and threw the half filled bottle at a nearby red haired woman, aiming for it to smash across her face. It did not hit his mark, however, as it merely moved through her body and broke against a brick wall. The male did not act surprised by this, merely continuing to limp down the street ahead of him. It had been almost a week since he last slept, but this did not keep his subconscious at bay. His dreams had begun to sneak into reality, making it difficult to understand the difference between the truth and mere illusion. Not like it mattered any further to Josh, the Human almost wishing for death.

So he continued to walk down the path ahead of him, mumbling words beneath his breath that no one could truly catch. He did not know where he was going, nor did he care in the least. Be it to somewhere that would make the voices go away, or through the windshield of a Chevrolet Impala, it mattered not. Life had become unbearable for the little sociopath, and he was truly at the end of his rope.

[Karlee Aurora Spencer]

NICOLA CRYSTAL FARR

→ MY VOICE IS AS LONELY AS LOUD AS I WHISPER A JOY OF THIS PAIN
OH GOD I FEEL LIKE I’M IN FOR IT NOW ITS LIKE THE RUSH HAS GONE STRAIGHT TO MY BRAIN ←

This was truly starting to get insane. The hospital visits were getting more and frequent, enforced by her paranoid parents as her twentieth birthday started to sneak up on her. She had lived way past the expectations of her doctors, and Nicola wasn’t sure why everyone thought it was such a bad thing! So she didn’t feel pain. The people who did feel pain were just fine, so why would she be any different? It just meant a little less discomfort for her. And if she died it wasn’t like she was going to be in any pain. Though some people would kill to never feel pain, it was a horrible experience for the young woman.

A single, round band-aid adorned her bare upper arm as she angrily stormed down the sidewalk. She had gotten some sort of anti-bacterial shot from the doctor to keep any infections at bay and she felt incredibly violated like she normally did when she went in for a checkup. . . . The doctors and nurses always had to check every little part of her to make sure she hadn’t injured herself on accident and no one knew about it. They seemed to think that if she sat wrong she would break her leg or something! It was insufferable!

“Damn freaking CIPA,” she muttered angrily to herself. Her parents had nearly dragged her back to the car to get her home, but she had run off, thoroughly pissed off at having been poked and prodded at like some lab-rat. Sure, it was for her own good, but she hated it. Why prolong the inevitable? Dark brown locks swayed through the air as she shook her head, her arms crossed angrily over her chest. However, her thoughts were distracted as a car zoomed past, horn blaring at some other car it had been unhappy with. Nicola turned to watch the car go by, not paying attention to what was in front of her.

Nicola hardly ever played attention to where she was going.

Clang! The light post in front of her vibrated visibly from the force of her impact with it and she took a couple steps back, gasping not in pain, but in surprise. People walking past giggled and whispered to each other, and one man asked if she was alright. A bruise had appeared on her forehead and her knee would later be discovered to be horribly banged up, but she just looked up at the man and shrugged. “I’m fine. Just wasn’t paying attention,” she said errantly, walking around the post and moving along, hoping that no one would think anything of it. No one normally did.

→ THERE'S A STRANGEST EXCITEMENT TODAY IF YOU'RE AWAKE ←

→ STARRING Joshua
→ COUNTING 445
→ LOCATION Streets
→ WEARING Click here!
→ NOTES =O
→ LYRICS By Angels and Airwaves

[owtlaw]

While car horns went off next to Joshua and people greeted each others with a flurry of expletives, not an ounce of it broke through to the male. These noises were drowned out by the thoughts of those around him, pummeling him from every direction with useless information. He now knew about how the mother of two behind him was cheating on her husband with his boss. How she felt no remorse for this since she had purposely gotten pregnant by her husband for money anyways, not even caring an ounce for her now teenage children. A sudden urge to turn around and stab her slid into his mind, how easy it would be to rid her thoughts from his head. The simplicity of it was amazing, he did have a sharpened scalpel hidden inside of his lab coat to begin with. He began to reach his right hand into his coat, fingers feeling around for the surgical tool. Soon it would be over, the stupidity of her thoughts would be rid altogether of his mind.

Yet before he could even get a grip around the item, the thoughts of another entered his head. This time it was coming from next to him, a man having taken residence inside of the abandoned building which was currently alongside Joshua. The man was old, his mind running much slower than what The Alchemist had become used too. It seemed that the individual which was currently intruding into Josh's head was long homeless, and had been inhaling the fumes of random inhalants for quite some time as well. All the man was thinking about was how badly he wanted to get a hold of anything which could get him high, be it paint thinner or some kerosene, it did not matter. The simplicity of the thoughts mixed with Joshua's lack of sleep, and he immediately forgot about assaulting the woman behind him.

This what he had been driven to, a mere shell of what he used to be. Just a few weeks back he was the top of his class, a man who could discover the answer to the most intense of algorithms with little effort, and yet now he could not stay on the same train of thought for anything over a few seconds. He was a complete mirror of his previous self, and there was absolutely nothing which he could figure out to fix it. All that he knew was that he had to make the voices stop somehow, it did not matter what he had to do to himself or anyone else, but they had to stop.

After just a brief moment of actual thought, Joshua being able to hear his own thoughts and only his own for a second, he was unwillingly eavesdropping on others once again. A female near him had just ran into a light post, obviously distracted by her own thoughts. This was not the first time which the male had seen something like this occur in the last couple of days, human beings seemed to self centered to ever think of the world around them, but there seemed to be a difference this time. Nothing in her mind seemed to shout in regards to pain, nothing tried to warn her to not repeat this action because of the flood of agony which was coursing through her skull. It intrigued Joshua for a moment, his old self breaking through for a fleeting moment.

"Freak." Was all which Joshua muttered under his breath as he passed the girl, not really caring that he had spoken loud enough for her to hear. He was not the same man that had walked this street a few weeks back, he could not find some way to trick her into being a lab rat of his, and thus the one rude comment was all which he could muster before his mind went astray once again. If only he could get some rest, if he could find some way to get rid of this illness which he was suffering from, then he could return to his old way of tossing out his fellow humans as if they were trash.

[Karlee Aurora Spencer]

NICOLA CRYSTAL FARR

→ MY VOICE IS AS LONELY AS LOUD AS I WHISPER A JOY OF THIS PAIN
OH GOD I FEEL LIKE I’M IN FOR IT NOW ITS LIKE THE RUSH HAS GONE STRAIGHT TO MY BRAIN ←

This wasn’t the first time nor would it be the last that Nicola ran head-first into a solid object. Her memory was shot from all of her head injuries she had sustained, never learning her lesson once. Now she couldn’t for the life of her remember why she had looked away from her path. Tough, she barely paid attention to it when she wasn’t thinking about other things. Her hand lifted to pick unconsciously at the small band-aid hiding her puncture wound from the shot, and she peeled it off slowly before tossing it into a trash can she passed as she walked. They always seemed to be attached to every other light post. . . . Or maybe that was just her.

And it began. “Freak,” someone passing her muttered. Nicola tensed and turned to look at the person who had said it, and her anger flared. This guy? This. . . messy-haired, lab-coat sporting, horned boy was going to call her a freak? For what? Running into a pole? Who did he think he is! Nicola didn’t care if she was in public. She didn’t have much to lose and she was going to fucking confront this little punk!

“Ex-cuse me? Who are you calling a freak, goat-boy? Look in a mirror lately!” she retorted sourly, hands by her sides and a scowl on her face. Oh no, this little lab-geek wasn’t going to get away with calling her a freak! At least she looked normal. She might not have been entirely normal with her retarded nerves that didn’t seem to want to tell her when there was something wrong—whether it be an injury or if it was too cold or too hot for her to bear—at least she wasn’t wearing horns or looked like she had just got done shooting some live-action version of Dexter’s Laboratory! Several people heard the commotion and either scurried along to stay out of it or loitered to snicker.

→ THERE'S A STRANGEST EXCITEMENT TODAY IF YOU'RE AWAKE ←

→ STARRING Joshua
→ COUNTING 329
→ LOCATION Streets
→ WEARING ~
→ NOTES She's mean! .___.
→ LYRICS By Angels and Airwaves

[owtlaw]

Joshua had continued down the street, not paying any further mind to the female he had just passed. He was once again being bullied by the outcry of thoughts, forced to ignore even his own mind another time. Yet something miraculous occurred, something which he would have never suspected. A single thought came shouting towards him, completely wiping everything else from his head. He turned his head in order to try and find out what was going on, attempting to discover whom it was that had made his world go so very quiet. The girl then began to actually yell at him, her voice matching the one which was swimming through his head so perfectly that he had no choice but to focus his eyes upon her.

"You truly are a freak..." Josh stated, eyes locked with the female's. Even though his words might seem malicious, his tone did not sound vicious in the least. He was currently in awe, in complete and utter bliss over the miracle which he was currently living through. Somehow he was merely hearing two thought patterns, his own and that of this girl, and in comparison to what he had been forced to undergo over the last couple of days it was as if everything were perfectly still. Had he actually sunk so low to ask God for assistance than he would have dropped to his knees and thank the Lord himself.

The Alchemist's mind began to race with how this could possibly be happening, what could be occurring that would trigger such a marvelous moment. He saw nothing interesting about the girl, her enraged thoughts gave way to no information as to what was making her his savior. Could it possibly be that just having someone focus their own mind on him was all it took to make this connection? Impossible, for surely at some point in the last few days he had to have attracted the attention of some soul as he stumbled across the city. Even with the extreme fatigue which he was undergoing, he continued to search his own thoughts for a possible answer. He could not allow this moment to be ruined, these few seconds of complete silence.

While the world was currently perfect to Joshua, to anyone looking at him it most likely looked nothing of the sort. He was focusing on the clumsy female with his only half opened eyes, his body not even having enough energy to allow him to properly glare at someone. His blonde hair was even more disheveled than usual, even looking oily because of how long it had been since he had allowed water to run under it. Truly, to the naked eye, he most likely looked as if he were some sort of drug addict who had recently run low on their hidden stash

[Karlee Aurora Spencer]

NICOLA CRYSTAL FARR

→ MY VOICE IS AS LONELY AS LOUD AS I WHISPER A JOY OF THIS PAIN
OH GOD I FEEL LIKE I’M IN FOR IT NOW ITS LIKE THE RUSH HAS GONE STRAIGHT TO MY BRAIN ←

Nicola’s shoulders hunched and she furrowed her brows. What did he mean by that! Storming forward she closed the distance but remained at a safe distance apart. “I’m not the one with the freak horns and the Dr. Jekyll outfit!” she snarled. Already in a bad mood, she wasn’t particularly happy to be confronted like she was right then. She didn’t even do anything to this guy! Sure, it was New York, and you got all kinds of comments from people sometimes, but right now she just wasn’t in the mood! She could have indeed just ignored him like she did the million other people on the streets that said unsavory things, but this weirdo had no right to call her a freak when he was obviously more of a freak than her!

Wait. What a weird expression. Was he even paying attention to her? Her glare deepened and she waved her hand in front of his face, wondering if he was like drugged out or something. Cocking an eyebrow, she placed her hands on her hips. Well this was terribly diffusing. The situation seemed to calm, and so the tiny crowed that had happened to hope this girl would bitch-slap him or something were leaving now and people were moving on with their lives. Well, a few of them. Some hung about, still hoping for some action. Sighing, Nicola got tired of waiting and reached out, wrapping her hands around one of the guy’s horns, tugging on it rather hard. “Are these things even real?” she snorted dubiously, waiting to see if they gave at all.

→ THERE'S A STRANGEST EXCITEMENT TODAY IF YOU'RE AWAKE ←

→ STARRING Josh
→ COUNTING 267
→ LOCATION Streets
→ WEARING ~
→ NOTES x.x
→ LYRICS By Angels and Airwaves

[owtlaw]

The female spoke to Joshua once again, but he was by far to lost in his own thoughts to even hear what she was saying. Sure, her own mind was currently invading his head, but it was more than simple to ignore whatever immature thing must have been bouncing inside of her skull. There was something by far more important to focus on, so much so that he did not even notice when the crowds began to part. All that mattered to Josh was that this girl was somehow holding the key to his freedom, and whether she agreed or not he was going to force her to assist him with discovering how to fix his problem.

However, before he could finish such a marvelous puzzle, the clumsy girl decided to yank on one of his horns. How difficult was it for others to understand that they were appendages just likes his arms and legs? By pulling on the protrusion, the female forced a shot of pain to slide from the horn all the way down Joshua's spine, easily ripping the male from his precious thoughts. He instinctively jumped backwards in order to try and get away from his attacker, his body not calculating in exactly how exhausted he had become. Instead of landing square on his feet, Josh stumbled upon landing and soon found his legs giving way from below him.

No further noise came from Joshua as gravity took hold and he began to fall. It is not as if he did not have something to say, it was that the back of his head slammed directly against the same light pole which the girl had ran into not even five minutes prior. Without even knowing what he had hit, the Alchemist was finally unconscious, even if it were because of the help of a solid piece of metal. His body continued to fall even after all of this, laying him flat on his back along the side of the street. The male had finally obtained the sleep he had been begging for so badly, and he was even lucky enough to not be bleeding from the incident.

[Karlee Aurora Spencer]

NICOLA CRYSTAL FARR

→ MY VOICE IS AS LONELY AS LOUD AS I WHISPER A JOY OF THIS PAIN
OH GOD I FEEL LIKE I’M IN FOR IT NOW ITS LIKE THE RUSH HAS GONE STRAIGHT TO MY BRAIN ←

Of course Nicola hadn’t the slightest clue what she had just done to the poor boy. He jerked suddenly away from her grasp and she pulled back, recognizing the gesture as that of someone who had just gotten hurt. She hadn’t felt it herself or had the reaction, but she’d seen it in others and she let go of the appendage she had take a hold of. It seemed the boy was no more coordinated than herself—though she was rather coordinated despite the fact that she didn’t pay attention—and he started to fall. “Oh, shite!” she gasped, reaching out instinctively to grab him. She had seen the things that happened to people when they felt pain, and though she couldn’t empathize, she could sympathize at least. . . . Those she had seen in pain didn’t seem to enjoy it all that much.

However, her reach wasn’t far enough. Her fingers barely brushed his arm, and then that very same ringing sound she had heard earlier rang through her ears, only it wasn’t her head connecting with the pole this time. She winced at the sound rather than the thought of what he might be feeling—she didn’t have anything to compare it to, though she could imagine it wasn’t nice—and watched like someone would watch a train wreck as the boy’s descent was finished with him laid out on his back pavement, people stopping to watch. Nicola could barely hear the whispers of people who thought she had pushed him and they were giving her disapproving stares, but no one was on the phone yet, obviously trying to figure out if the poor boy was alright first, but he wasn’t making any moves to get up.

Letting out something that sounded like a distressed groan, Nicola’s strange desire to help people won over her initial anger at the boy and she kneeled next to him, her brow furrowed with concern, she pat his cheek lightly. “Hey, get up! Can you hear me?” she called loudly but not too loudly so that she was yelling. Nothing. Nicola let out that same distressed groan and pat her pants down, but she couldn’t find her cell phone. Dammit! She must have left it in her parents’ car! Where they looking for her now? Oh who cared. They could worry about her all they wanted to. They would be up in arms about that bruise in her head when she got home. . . .

But the young woman had better things to worry about. Well, more important things to worry about. Looking around, she frowned with disapproval at the people gawking. “Well don’t just stand there and stare! Call somebody! He’s unconscious and could have a concussion!” she dictated angrily. Nicola wasn’t particularly fond of hospitals and she knew that most of the EMTs in this god-forsaken city would know her, see the bruise that she hardly doubted was on her head and then want to drag her in. However, she had undoubtedly been the cause of all of this and needed to amend it somehow. . . . Making sure this strange guy got the care he needed seemed to be a good idea. Maybe he would wake up before the ambulance reached the place and they’d all be saved a trip to that dreaded hospital.

→ THERE'S A STRANGEST EXCITEMENT TODAY IF YOU'RE AWAKE ←

→ STARRING Josh
→ COUNTING 558
→ LOCATION Sidewalk
→ WEARING ~
→ NOTES Yay! A semi-good post!
→ LYRICS By Angels and Airwaves