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Since quitting the pep squad, Sylvia's stepped up her training with Jack and her sessions with Sarah, so it's not surprising that she shows up early one morning, knocking on the Rollins' door and asking if Sarah can come out to play.

"Can I Dad?  Can I?  I promise to be good!"  Sarah says jokingly as she heads out the door.  She waves to her Dad with her cellphone in her hand to make sure he knows she can be in touch. 

"Brr!" exclaims Sarah.  She steps back in and grabs a jacket and a hat before heading back out.  "Okay.  Now I'm ready to play.  Whats up?"

Sylvia leads them through a warm-up jog as they talk, breath steaming into the air.  "You said you wanted me to call you, but last night, sorry, I totally spaced.  What's up?"

Sarah enjoys the warm-up and realizes she hasn't been doing as much of it lately.  Teleporting was making her lazy.

She waves off the apology, "No problem.  I wasn't in a rush or anything.  Especially since it's been so quiet lately.  But listen.. you were talking about someone who can do mental stuff... and I was hoping to talk to them.  Do you know someone?"  Sarah pauses before asking, "Or is it you?"

"You're asking me if I'm mental?"  Sylvia hoists herself over a bank of mail boxes, just for the hell of it.  "Seriously, ask, and I'll do whatever I can to help."

"No you headcase, I'm asking if you can read minds.  I know your mental." says Sarah with an exasperated tone.  She makes the crazy circle with her finger next to her ear and sticks her tongue out.  For a moment she worries whether Sylvia will take offense or just know she's joking. 

"I wanted to talk to you about a knack I have.  I haven't told anyone else yet because it's not something that exactly inspires trust."

Sylvia just dimples at the joke.  Then she throws Sarah a look.  "What do you mean?"

Sarah stops jogging for this part.  She leans against a wall, catching her breath for a second before saying, "I can change people's minds."  She looks down at her sneakers.  "I don't just mean I'm persuasive.  I mean I can make someone remember things differently." 

She says, "I can show you if you trust me.  Well, I might be able to show you even if you didn't trust me but it would be easier if you didn't fight it.  Sorry, that sounds kind of scary doesn't it?"

"Eh," Sylvia says, nodding.  She's spooked but trying to stay cool.  "Don't make me forget anything important.  And don't make me cluck like a chicken."

Sarah sighs in relief.  "Right, no chickens.  I wont dabble in anything you really remember.  I can't read minds and memories.  It would be a lot easier if I could.  If your ready.."

Sarah focuses her will on Sylvia and says, "You think your name is Brunhilda and you don't remember anything after you offered me help."

She waits a moment before saying, "I wanted to talk to you about something Brunhilda."

"Hmm?" Brunhilda says.  "Go ahead.  Just spit it out.  Whatever it is, it can't be that bad."

"Well for starters, your name isn't Brunhilda."

Sarah wills the altered memories to return to normal and giving Sylvia full memory of all that just happened.

She looks worriedly at Sylvia and says, "See what I mean about trust?  I know the questions you can ask about this.  I promise I've never used it on you or any of us before.  As soon as I figured it out I knew I couldn't do it without your permissions.  I can't rewrite my friends lives.  Though I was tempted time and again to rewrite those bwitches.  How much trouble could I have saved if I'd just managed to turn each of them into happy little care bears.  Model citizens, active in their community and kind to children and the elderly.  But I didn't.  I didn't even try because it seemed so wrong.  I mean, until the end I was never one hundred percent sure that the witches were behind all the mess.  Even now I feel bad for them because they'd have never gotten into the trouble they did without outside help.  They were trouble but without Vandross they'd have probably stuck to minor league evil and just been a pack of intolerable teenagers."

She shrugs and looks at Sylvia, "So what do you think?  Do you hate me now?  Want to run home and check your diary against your memory to see if I've messed with your life?  I'll understand.  I'll be kind of bummed but I'll understand."

Sylvia's blitheness falters when Sarah mentions the witches.  She looks a little bleak.  "The magic didn't make them evil.  It just made them stupid."


"No," Sylvia says, thinking it over.  "I gotta admit, in most other people something like this would have me wearing a tinfoil hat, but--"  She shrugs.  "--you're Sarah.  You're like the least twitchy person I know."  She pauses.  "Did you just want to get that off your chest, or was there something else?  Do you need help with this?"

Sarah ponders Sylvia's question.  "I don't think I need help but I guess I just wanted a little reassurance that I wouldn't be a pariah if I told someone.  I mean I could use some more practice to really get good at it but to practice I need to mess with people's heads.  So I've kind of got a little bit of a dilemma."  She changes to a smarmy car dealer voice and says, "Hey!  How's it going? Great... Listen I'd like to mess with your memories so I can get better at it okay?  Great thanks."

She sighs.  "Who should I tell next?"

"You've told Colin, right?"

Sarah shakes her head.  "Just you."

Sylvia cringes.  "He'll be pissy for days if he finds out you said something to me before you said something to him.  Boys are so delicate."

Sarah laughs at Sylvia's description of the fragile emotional nature of boys.  "I guess I'd better tell him next, " she says.  In a bright tone she adds, "And hey, if it doesn't work out I'll just click undo." She sighs, "No I guess I can't do that."

Sylvia nods regretfully.  "Hey, if you need someone to practice with, someone who can take it, I think I might know someone.  I can ask him to contact you if you want."

Sarah looks curiously at Sylvia.  She says, "You know someone who likes having their head messed with?  Are they into drugs or something?"

"I doubt you'd be able to mess with him.  He's the 800-pound gorilla of telepaths.  You want him to get in touch with you?"

"Oh really?  Since when have you been hanging around with gorillas?" asks Sarah curiously.  She shrugs and adds, "Well I'll bring the banana's if he can make the time.  Just as long as he doesn't make me cluck like a chicken."

Sylvia nods, stalling for time.  Hello?  Are you there?

You remember Sarah?  Sylvia flashes supplementary images of Sarah and Colin, Sarah and Pip, Sarah and Cheetos.  She can control people's thoughts.

Sylvia ignores the flurry of unease she feels.  Yeah, thanks for the vote of confidence.  Anyway, I dunno, she wants to practice, but she doesn't have anyone to practice with, you know?  She needs a punching bag.

Sylvia winces.  That wasn't exactly what I meant.  It's kind of mean to pick on crazy people, isn't it?

Sylvia sighs.  "Are you free on Sunday?" she asks Sarah.

Sarah has been watching Sylvia with a familiar interest.  She seemed to be thinking about something an awful lot... sort of like when Sarah was having a conversation in her head.


"Sure.  So were you talking with your gorilla just now?  Here I thought Colin and I were the only ones with voices in our heads."

"Yeah.  Mine has a body, though, and likes exotic take-out."

Sarah laughs, "Like what?  Yak-kabobs?" she asks.  "I can get on their good side then.  I can pop out to Chicago or.. if they don't mind reheating even out to New York for something if they can give me directions.  That reminds me.. if you ever need a quick ride somewhere and you don't feel like riding a dragon give me a buzz.  It's not what I'd call an inconvenience to take ten minutes out of my day for a trip."

"Not that exotic.  It's just that the food where he lives. . . . "  Sylvia pauses.  "Um . . . I should probably come clean now.  He lives in an, uh--"  She mumbles.  "--institution."

Sarah nods, "And he's a he.  Which is good seeing you were referring to him as a gorilla.  But what kind of institution are we talking about?  A retirement home?  A hospital?  Something else?"

She thinks about it for a second.  "I hope I'm not.. stressing you or your friend.  I don't want to make a problem or anything."

"Mental institute," Sylvia says apologetically.


Sylvia shakes her head.  "No stress.  No problem."

"A mental institute," says Sarah carefully.  She takes a deep breath and asks the next obvious question.  "Is he, um, in need of their services?"

Oh my gosh... do I want to let some crazy guy play with my head?  What if this is something else?  I mean what if he's gotten a hold of Sylvia's brain and she doesn't even know it?  I don't want to become some gorilla's sock puppet! 

"He's in need of wardrobe therapy.  That's it."

"Oh.  Well then let's bring in Megan.  She's absorbed every fashion magazine published.  She can GQ the hell out of him.  By the time she's done he won't even recognize himself.  Which would  be a pretty cool trick to play on a mentalist."

Sarah feels a little better about going to meet the mystery man.  "Okay then," she says.  "I'll meet him on Sunday.  If he's got a special lunch item he'd like smuggled in just let me know.  Curry?  Corn dogs?  Caramel apples?"

"How's everything else going?  How was your Thanksgiving?  I had so much Triptophan in my system I was having turkey flashbacks until yesterday."

"We went to Tennessee to hang with Carolyn's family.  They deep-fried a turkey, and Uncle Hank took us hunting."  Sylvia looks unhappy about this.  "I didn't hit anything, but they brought home a dead deer."

Sarah looks a little ill at the thought of killing a deer.  Her only interactions with deer were petting zoos.  Well and a few road kill.  She tried not to look at those.  "I'm sorry about that.  Um...what were they thinking?  Was the whole family hunting?  Sorry, it's none of my business.  I've got family who do really inappropriate things based on good intention."

"My grandmother and all my uncles but one live out where the thing to do early on a Saturday morning is to shoot things.  Deer get a little crazy around this time of year, so Carolyn's family has this venison-chili tradition that starts around now and lasts until Christmas.  The chili's not bad," Sylvia says dolefully, "but it's pretty hard to swallow when you can still see those big, dark, shiny eyes staring at you, upside-down."

Sarah looks confused for a second.  "Upside down?  Oh.  Yeah.  Food is always tastier if you haven't met it before." 

"I just hung out with some cousins and we went to a mall, walked around town... no shooting involved.  Very low key.  No deep fried turkeys.  No deep fried anything.  Well except at the mall but that doesn't count.  I spent some time on my own for most of one day... just um, hanging around I guess.  I'm glad that school is back in."

"Me, too," Sylvia says.  "Did you tell your cousins anything about what's been going on?"

Sarah laughed and nodded.  "I didn't have a choice.  They heard a news report about Oak Park back at the beginning of the year and they've been saving up the questions since then.  Do I know this super or that one?  My cousin Todd has a crush on Velocity.  Well along with every other super girl that wears that kind of outfit.  Did your family talk about it down in Tennessee?"

"Are you kidding?  Carolyn's family is still grappling with Mitzi, Ginny, and me.  Carolyn's grandmother still calls us 'those little Chinese girls.'  She's not mean about it or anything," Sylvia explains, "and she's kind of losing her mind."

Sarah just nods again.  She asks, "Yeah... how does that work out?  I mean, how long were your parents together before you came along?  Was their relationship a big surprise or a family feud maker or what?  Had the dust settled by the time you showed up?"

For Sylvia, answering questions about her parents' past is like taking a history exam.  "I think they were together for five years?  Something like that?  And Carolyn's family always figured there was something wrong with her, but my uncles--I dunno.  They're cool with it.  It's like they figure it's their fault 'cause they made her shoot and fix cars.  Mitzi's mom is in total denial.  I think we've met only once.  They don't even talk anymore."

Sarah says, "That's sad.  I guess I'm sort of grateful that I grew up in a," and she makes air quotes before continuing, " 'normal' family.  All we need is the dog and the picket fence and we'd have it all.  Oh except I'm a genetic freak or something else entirely.  Who knows."

That makes her think of a question.  "Do you know where your powers are from?"

"I'm pretty sure I was bitten by a radioactive View-Master.  You?"

"Me? Oh.  Magic ring given to me by a dinosaur space alien.  That's where they really disappeared to you know."  Sarah rolls her eyes.  "Seriously.  If it's some secret or something that's cool.  I just wondered is all."

"It's not secret.  I don't know."  Sylvia blinks, thinking about the others.  "I guess almost everyone else has a reason, don't they?  If you have to have a reason, my defense is that I'm adopted.  Somewhere in China there's this family of telepaths that's missing one, maybe."

Sarah nods in agreement again.  "Hey as excuses go that one is pretty good.  I did a little family searching and mine is straight up normal.  I didn't really get blasted with scientific goo like Megan.  I'm not inheritor to the guardianship of any realm, I don't think I'm an alien.  My parents have pictures of me from birth.  No magic ring.  It's okay not knowing but I am curious.  I mean, what if I have my powers because I abstain from cauliflower?  I could accidentally eat one sometime and poof!  Morpheus told me he and his kind look for people of potential like myself.  So I must have had this power brewing from something for him to spot me."

Sarah finally shrugs.  "I guess I'll have to wait and see.  In the meantime I'll just keep kicking badguy butt.  Speaking of which, is anyone hunting for anyone in particular?  I know Colin was writing down all the mysteries we encounter out there.  Vandross, whoever or whatever he is, is still lurking out there.  There's always more thugs turning up with more of those super drugs.  I really enjoyed having most of November to myself.  It was relaxing but now I'm feeling itchy like I haven't been keeping up with things.  Like you know you have homework but you just can't remember what it is."

"Well, Donnie's dad is still into something suspicious.  Hey, if you mind control Donnie into telling me it's okay to read his dad's mind, would that be cheating?"

Sarah smirks.  "I think that would fall under cheating.  Also breaks my rule about messing with my friends minds without their permission."

OOC: I take it this thread is done?

.. I guess so?  I get to go meet Sylvia's secret on Sunday!