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Its a MONTAGE! Yeah baby! Kaleb has work to do, sitting in silence, followed by testing out his powers in the abandoned city. Sometimes Maximus goes, though he stays very far away, and is happy to bring Kellan, though he leaves Kellan nearer to the exit. What Maximus does, alone, in the darkness is a secret. Nothing ever seems to come of it though. When Kaleb is down, Kellan and Maximus can haul him back to the quiet room. Food here in Attilan is vaguely mediterranean in nature, with some Asian influence.
|ROLL| Maximus +rolls 1d20 for: 1
Kellan has been pretty quiet, despite all of the questions that he may have in his mind. He mostly hangs back and watches, keeps an eye on his brother, but otherwise leaves the training and practicing and in and out of tubing to those who know what's best. When he's left to his own devices he remains where he's told to stay, and spends time reading the books that he brought with him, and otherwise taking in the city and palace, what he can see of it while he's there. He goes with Max when he's allowed, and he remains behind if he's not.
Kaleb was busy. Whatever drove him he pushed himself hard. The practices he gave himself started small; throwing pebbles and coins trying to trace and track the sounds. Having Max walk and try to follow him blindfolded. Oh he ran into so many things in the first fifty minutes. A pillar, a wall, a hole. Fun fun! It was not his shining moment but he was getting better, even slightly comfortable. It was when he knew they were clear and out of the area he tried a low level sonic crush on a bit of pottery that exploded the water vessel and knocked him clean out. When he woke up his head was ringing but he still asked quietly, "When we eat?" He winced and and looked around to find Max and Kellan in the room they were put up in. "Hmmm too much I'm takin' it."
Maximus smiled over at Kaleb and nods once. "Yes…and pathetic, to be honest. You know my brother could shatter an entire building. You really are not frightening at all." There's a lilt to his words that takes the bite off them, lending them a more teasing air. He's definitely wearing make-up, but his goatee is growing back out, so its a weird combination a few decades too soon for punk and goth.
Kellan frowns a little bit at Maximus and says, "Well he's not your brother. Neither of us is anywhere near as powerful as the two of you." He tips his book down and regards the both of them from where he sits. "He's only going to get better with time and practice.. but your brother could shatter things from the time he was a baby. Kaleb's still learning." He rests his head back against the wall.
Kaleb quint as he sat up and rubbed at his eye. He murmured, "Not my fault he's got no respect f'architecture." He sat up and squint to Max who, liked Jay, kinda loved to punch his buttons. Still though, he wasn't wrong. Kellan wasn't wrong either though he did push himself to a sit and rubbed at his bloodshot eye with the heel of his hand. "Kell, we better get practicing. We're apparently way behind." His fingers went through his long hair hanging in his face trying to put some semblance of order back to the chaos. "Maximus, I thought about what you asked me before. I… want to help you."
"You are in no condition to help me, right now. though, I appreciate that someday you will be. And your brother…" Maximus looks to Kellan. "You, seem fine. What is there that you need to work on?" He leans back in the chair, legs wide, his trench coat hanging around the chair so much that it can't really be seen at all.
"I am fine," Kellan says in answer to Maximus. "I'm just.. not.. able to do the sorts of things that other telepaths can do. But it's tied to the reflections. Using it outside of the reflections is harder. I can control them, and sense and feel what they sense and feel like it's all me all at once like a big hive mind no matter how far they go. But if I try to sense Kaleb and talk to him, I lose him within a block. And I can listen to surface thoughts if I try but.. what you did with that guard.. what I've felt from others.. and even with my reflections, they're all tied to me. If one of them dies, I die. I feel like.. I can do all these things, but they're all.. so limited."
Kaleb closed his eyes and tried to get a shape on the room. Voices bounced and relays of the various waves were made. Kellan's voice, the page of the book, Maximus' shoes. Everything had pitch and tone to shape and be shaped and have volume. It bounced off the table, the floor, dragged on the fabric, and eventually make its way to him. He reached out and felt it with his fingers. Tangible to him. "Max, it'll happen. I refuse to be broken. I'm not… I'm not broken." His jaw tightened and he focused on Kellan's voice offering quietly, eyes still shut, "Max, what'd you do?" Now he was curious arching an eyebrow.
Maximus frowns as he looks at Kaleb. "What do you mean? My power? I do not usually discuss my ability because most people find it increases their distrust of both myself..and themself." He glances to Kellan. "You probably know what I mean, if your powers are mental." He glances back to Kaleb and stares at him a moment. "I can control minds. But, its not what you think. I don't tell you how to think. I just…totally take over." He makes a grim face.
"I don't really talk about my powers because people don't really seem .." Kellan shrugs his shoulders and goes back to reading his book, falling silent while Kaleb and Maximus talk. He flips the page and picks up where he left off. This trip was for Kaleb, after all, not him. He occasionally glances over at his brother, to see how he is doing, and toward Max and then back to the book in his hands.
Kaleb slowly arched an eyebrow and looked from Max to Kellan, and back. He blinked. Well seizing control of someone utterly made him feel like his ability to strongly suggest compliance was kids' play. "Man, I would give my left testicle for that… prolly best I don't. I'd so abuse the hell out of that." He shook his head and considered that for a long moment looking back to Max, "That's rough. I have to rely on some part of them wanting to. That's far out. I tried to teach Kellan that. I dunno how you all do things." His hand rubbed over his face and he stood up "We still trust ya, Max."
Maximus frowns at Kaleb. "You rely on people wanting…what? Your sound doesn't need to rely on anything, surely. Or do you mean that you also have mental powers? My power is not so great as it sounds. I cannot read minds at all…like your brother." A glance to Kellan again. "But now…I am curious." And just all of the sudden, practically violently, does he thrust out his mind and try to wrap control around the man who just claimed to trust him. Maybe its a test.
"He uses suggestion," Kellan says without looking up from his book. "His voice can soothe them into doing what he wants, but they have to have some inclination toward doing it in the first place. It's not mind control." He continues to read, however, not even looking up at either of them. Finally he just drops the book on the bed and gets up, wandering across the room toward the door.
Kaleb watched Kellan and winced. Echo was no telepath, but he didn't need to be. He really shouldn't be. "Kellan's got the better of it. He can do anything he really puts his mind to all at the same" and he stopped and there was no wall there. He was a young demanding personality that executed orders, but he had no screen for telepathy; not Xavier, not Kellan, and not Maximus. He was, and then he was hanging there brain blinking with an empty cursor awaiting input. He stood up and moved around in a circle like a cat looking for someplace suitable to sit back down.
Maximus sat him back down and then released him back to hos own senses. It is an odd thing, being possessed by Maximus. He does nothing to change Kaleb's mind, does nothjng to influence. He simply, proverbially, shoved him aside and took over driving. So Kaleb would recall all of it and have simply been unable to help himself. The former king just grins.
Kellan only sort of notices that Kaleb has gone silent, turned around, and sat back down. He looks toward Maximus for a moment, then Kaleb, and his brow furrows a little bit. He continues to study Kaleb from where he stands, hovering near the door. Concern is clear on his features, but he says nothing, at least not for the moment.
Kaleb sat still, even after Maximus let him go. He blinked and squint back to Max. OH the squinting. And it hit him. "Hey Kellan? Question… I know you can talk to someone… can each of you tried this? Th-th- split the signal, then… amplify." He looked distracted as if something suddenly made sense to him and with a hand that looked to be a gesture that was catching moths the sound severely warped close to him. He quint back to Max. Nope, didn't forget that one but he was torn between jealousy and staving reactions of a reactive nature after spending a week and a half out of control over his self. For now his eyes went back to Kellan curious on the answer.
Maximuswets his lips. "I can be receptive. My brother can speak to me with his mind, as he csn with only a few others. But I have not tried it with others." Maximus draws in another breath. "I thought you would be furious, though, to some few, it is relaxing beyond anything else. It is like floating down a stream."
Kellan pauses when Kaleb asks him that question and he folds his arms, leaning back against the wall near the door and thinks about it. "Yeah, I suppose that could be possible… that I could make the link with each copy… and that would let me link with more than one person at a time. Since I can hear and network between all of the reflections… I should be able to hear and talk between them to combine the links.. maybe. I've never tried it," he says, getting lost in considering the theoretical for the moment and forgetting that he was going to go take that walk.
Kaleb paused and looked to Maximus and said casually, "Oh… I am. My statement stands." He glanced to him and stood up again. Okay furious, but apparently getting the point of illustration perhaps? Or maybe keeping Kellan from worrying more than he has been for too long. Oh, Echo certainly stuck a pin in that one though he offered, "But you just gave me three ideas." He looked to Max and back to Kellan. "Try it?" He wiavered a moment and worked to stand up glancing back to Maximus more curious than malice. There was science a foot.
Maximus arched a brow and leaned back into his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, defensively, but also currently unafraid. If Kaleb were gonna shout him mire crazy, hed have done it by now. He trns his steel eyes to Kellan, curious to observe his gift…starting to fogure out thst they were less and less individuals and…perhaps more like two sides of the same coin.
When Kaleb suggests that he try it, Kellan considers for a moment, and then he nods. "Sure, why not." Then there kind of appears with a slight shimmer a copy of Kellan standing next to him, dressed in exactly the same clothes that he is wearing, truly identical. He then reaches out and establishes a link with Kaleb, thinking into his head. Okay, I'm connected to you. Then the reflection looks over to Maximus and asks, "Do you mind if I establish a link with you? To see if I can make this work?" There isn't anyone else to test with at the moment, but he's still polite enough to ask.
Kaleb isn't one to raise his voice really ever. He got quiet when he got mad, not loud. 'Loud and clear, Kell.' He glanced to Maximus and cracked a faint grin. "C'mon. After that ya owe us a lil somethin." Okay he wasn't mad, and his trust so far as he was concerned still stood in tact. No harm was done and it wasn't like Max exploited him. This one he was letting wash. Apparently throwing Kellan opportunity was 'even Stephen' here. Aside from the stress over the last couple days this was the first real new hope he had. "C'mon, Max, this could be way neat."
Maximus nods to the Kellan clone, curiously watching as this situation develops. Of course if Kellan tries to go traipsing through his mind hes going to come out less sane than he began. It be akin to trying to play guitar on a violin. Technically there are the same strings, but there are less of them and they arent properly next to each other.
There's no poking going on, no probing of thoughts. There is just a link established, like picking up a can on the end of a taught string, and little more. Maximus can hear Kellan's voice in his head Okay.. you should be able to hear me, too. And think back to me. It takes a conscious effort to skim surface thoughts and he's already been warned about Max's head, and so he does not, in fact, make any attempt to skim those thoughts, instead keeping to communication strictly. Then across both copies he attempts to talk to them both simultaneously. Okay, can you both hear this one? and then he waits to see if it works, which it does. Each copy can establish its own two way link, links that all copies are then simultaneously aware of.
Kaleb wobbled again and instead of distracting sat back down. Man, his head was a revolving door today. STill it was off sound and that helped give him reprieve fromteh echoes that were bouncing in his skull from earlier. 'Yeah, I got you. I'm still hungry ya know.' The issue of food when he woke back up was not resolved.
Maximus makes a strange face when he can hear the twins in his head. its strange to him because their voices are so similar and hes honestly not sure whoch of them is in there. He tries to respond, but he cant. He speaks with his mouth. "food can be arranged, Kaleb, I assume that is you? It seems like Kellan would be the ultimate coordinator. i know, I know, but the humans would come to agree ts best for everyone. They could never be so connected with radios." He speaks as if they have spoken to him, without that actually being the case.