<hr/><div class="floatleft">(http://i.imgur.com/gfXiZgF.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Salem Summers<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Salem's Dorm, then the halls outside of Gabriel's Dorm<br/><strong>Date/Time:</strong>Sept. 2nd, 5:40 pm<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Gabriel Summers<br/><strong>Content:</strong>Salem gets her powers back to normal. She covers her eyes again and opens up in a different way. She tells Gabriel a few things about this world, and herself before inquiring about her family again.<br/><strong>wearing:</strong>Emma's clothing here (http://i.imgur.com/cK6kfyx.jpg) - Also these shoes with dark black leggings (http://i.imgur.com/4Em0Q3S.jpg) - And her signature glasses of course.<br/><hr/>It was a deep part of her personality. The fact that she couldn’t open her eyes unless they were covered was a constant metaphor for her. She had to use restraint and discipline constantly or she was risking everyone’s safety. That’s how she lived her whole life. Dedication to control the power inside of her was what drove her. This shortcut would be like winning the lottery. It would destroy her from the inside. She wouldn’t have earned it. Gifts were great. Big gifts were better. This gift, this was too good. Gabriel didn’t realize how much he was giving her. It was far too much for her to handle.<br/><br/>She could feel the power return to her eyes, and she let herself sit back in the chair away from her potential brother’s hand. She was starting to calm, she could feel her heart rate slow down instantly.<strong>“Thank you.”</strong>She wanted to be diplomatic. She didn’t want to burn down this bridge.<br/><br/>Her glasses returned to her face, and she opened her eyes comfortably behind the ruby quartz that had kept her safe for years.<br/><br/>Salem glanced over her lap to look at Gabriel floating there.<strong>”Whoa.”</strong>Salem ran one of her hands through her hair and took a deep breath.<strong>“That was intense.”</strong>She felt bad. Salem knew that Gabriel was only trying to help. But she didn’t have the capability to inform him that she appreciated the offer.<strong>“I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to get short with you.” </strong><br/><br/>Salem’s gentle hands found one strange home after another; the arms of the chair, her own lap, her temple, the space between her knees and so on. He tried to tell her that he was trying to help, and she could feel everything that he had done. It made sense to her, from his perspective a life with more control meant more happiness. But, Salem had found her own control, it was ruby quartz. It was her glasses and her visor. They were tangible things. She could physically hold her control in her hand. It was a mask that she could put on and off, a master switch for her own emotional circuit board.<br/><br/>The girl’s mind was ablaze with clarity. This moment held weight to it, she would remember it forever. It was a lot to take in. Salem didn’t realize how much she leaned on her lack of control until that moment. She was trying to catch up with her own reaction to Gabriel’s manipulation. And she was doing it outloud. This was far more private than Salem had been in years with anyone.<br/><br/>She waited for him to say his peace and she tried to use his state of mind to help him understand her feelings about what he’d just done to her.<br/><br/>It was too big of a concept for her to actually understand and feed back to her brother.<strong>“It seems like you come from a very different place.”</strong>She stumbled on her choice. She wasn’t sure how to proceed with this explanation. Her back straightened and she sat up, blinking, happy that he couldn’t see her expression anymore. The bewilderment in her body language was obvious though, and she couldn’t hide that.<strong>“By different, I don’t mean physically in different space, but, your world was nothing like this one.”</strong><br/><br/>She was on a good tract, she let her mind speak instead of filtering it. The earnest result was almost as rare as seeing Salem’s eyes might have been.<br/><br/><strong>“This world might seem more peaceful, and more… free, like I was saying before. But there are a lot of very strange rules you’re going to need to learn.”</strong>She was starting to sound a little angry again, when she was speaking without thinking like this, her emotions came through, and she could only try and temper herself. If she didn’t calm down, her tone wouldn’t shift.<br/><br/>She continued in her authoritarian tone.<strong>“We’re fragile people here. We have a lot of private things that other people aren’t allowed to see. You have a tremendous power Gabriel Summers.”</strong>Salem’s hand dangled from the edge of the chair, she felt like she might cry. She suddenly felt a sting of regret about not opening her eyes when Gabriel had given her the chance.<strong>“That power is very intrusive though. You were inside me, changing things. I wasn’t ready for it.”</strong><br/><br/>Salem leaned forward even more, she hadn’t thought about doing so.<strong>“I-”</strong>a stutter, then she picked up,<strong>“I might be willing to accept the gift that you were trying to give me... one day.” - “But, right now, I need these glasses as much as I need my power.”</strong>She was realizing this as she was saying it out loud.<strong>“I would love to let the world in, I would.” </strong>She stumbled over herself, forcing herself not to cry.<br/><br/><strong>“I’m not ready for that yet. I don’t want that much company right now.”</strong>No one had peered into Salem’s eyes for six years. She was even starting to forget what they actually looked like.<strong>“Now.”</strong><br/><br/><strong>“You said ‘our’ parents.”</strong>This can of worms was opening too.<strong>“Gabriel? I've wondered this my whole life. Do you know what happened to my family? Are you my brother?”</strong>If he could prove it, if he could cement that part of her life right now, she would be grateful. He might see her cry, she hoped that that wouldn’t happen. But, that depended on how gentle he was going to be with the news. Salem knew that this boy could be rather forward. And she was rolling the dice on this one.<em> ‘I have to know.’ </em>Gabriel had said Alaska, that was one thing Salem did know about her past. Xavier had told her, but nothing more; she had been born in Alaska as Salem Summers.<br/><br/>She was starting to feel like Gabriel had the rest of that story.