Backflips For Days

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

Casper and Jasper were walking along with one another on their way to their dorm since they had skipped all of their classes today. For one they didn’t even know where all of them were; even if they had been given a map, and they were so used to being home schooled that they were a bit nervous to actually show up to class with other kids in the room. They knew that they would have to end up going to class at one point in order to learn and graduate. They would not admit that they had been nervous about the whole being in a classroom thing, especially because they performed in front of hundreds of people and they would just be sitting there. There really should not have been anything to fear, yet they had it. So they had avoided classes all day and were hiding out in a tree, just climbing it, hanging upside-down, and doing so pull-ups. Now that classes were over however they felt like it would be fine to go back to their rooms, but walking was becoming boring.

"Casper, bet I could do more backflips then you?" Jasper issued the challenge to his brother as he glanced over to him with grey eyes. Casper scoffed a little at that, knowing for a fact that last time he had beat Jasper by two more backflips. "What are we betting?" Casper asked, since it was important to have terms on which to bet for if you were going to bet. Bragging rights were one thing, but sometimes having a little bit more of a prize made it all the better. There was a silence for a moment as the two still walked together wearing torn jeans and white t-shirt, having not yet washed what few clothing they actually had. They did plan on using the money they made at the circus for getting themselves more everyday clothing instead of performing outfits, but they were still new to the area. "Loser has to wash our laundry for a month." The twins said at the same time, of course agreeing upon it since they both had set the bet together.

With the agreement set it was time to do the backflips. Theses ones of course would be the ones where your hands would touch the ground in order to allow the continued rotation of flip after flip. They started stretching first, not wanting to pull anything and then got into position. "Ready?" Casper asked ready himself. "Go!" Jasper yelled out and then went ahead and started his backflips, getting a head start on Casper who quickly started doing them as well. It was not about distance however; it was about how many you could do until you got dizzy. The twins doing flip after flip until the world was starting to become a little off balanced. So off balanced that Jasper ended up just flat out falling on the ground while Casper ended up stumbling into someone. Someone that basically had a 6'1" guy basically falling on them dizzy.

[Chloe Black]

At this pace, a tortoise with a bad leg may have outrun Chloe. Formerly the fastest girl on the track team, now she was reduced to this: simply walking across campus to her dorm was leaving her out of breath. But this was her own damn fault. It had been weeks since she’d even had physical contact with someone, much less fed on them.

In a way, this was an experiment to see if she would be able to survive far away from any kind of human contact. It wasn’t looking terribly likely last week either. By now, she had no good reason to keep making herself feel miserable. This only stopped her from being able to justify it. She didn’t understand why she wanted to make herself suffer, but she was going to keep doing it.

It took a 6’1” boy backflipping into her to make her change her mind.

Chloe hit the ground hard, too lethargic to break her fall. Once she had taken a moment to realize what had happened, and that she had been knocked over, she learned that she was too weak to stand up again. It may have been that her backpack full of books was weighing her down, which made this so much more difficult than getting out of bed in the morning. Or maybe she was just getting worse.

With the help of her tail, she rolled over onto her side, staring at the boy who had knocked her over. “I think I might need help standing up again,” she said sheepishly.

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

Casper had fallen into someone, thankfully not actually landing on them and crushing them but more or less knocking them down and ending up falling to the ground as well. He was able to catch himself either way, but he remained still so the world would stop spinning for a moment. "Sorry about that. Figured this area didn't really have too many people around." Casper said after a moment when the Earth more or less went still enough for him to be able to stand up and brush himself off, shoving his light blonde hair out of his face, and feeling his lip piercing with his tongue to make sure he had not bitten his lip or anything in the process. Everything checked out okay. He was going to say more about how she should have been more or less alert to where she was so she could have at least tried to get out of the way, but the whole tail thing distracted him. Distracted him long enough that his brother made his way of with a pleased smile on his face.

"I won." Jasper pointed out, as if his brother was not already aware of the fact that he loss since he crashed into someone and more or less had to stop doing his flips. The girl sheepishly pointing out that she was going to need some help up and both he boys offered out their hands to help her up. Really one of them could have easily picked her up without a problem, but they were not using their power and a little team work never really hurt. Plus the boys did things together and helping someone up was a together things that they could do. "Take my hand." The brother said in unison, something they often did because of their power and being around one another as much as the two of them were. They would help her to her feet either way as soon as she took their hands and would start looking her over. Checking out this tail of hers and trying to figure out what her mutation might have been.

"Hmmm...something with half shifting maybe?" Casper asked his brother, to which Jasper gave a 'eh, maybe face'. "What if it’s not real?" Jasper responded back, referring to the tail as he was tempted to give it a little tug on. Yes the brothers were more or less having a conversation about her while she was right there.

[Chloe Black]

Identical twins. A pair of identical twins who said the same things at the same times pulled her to her feet by both of her outstretched arms. Chloe would have thanked them, but these twins seemed to be referring to her as an ‘it’ and staring openly at her butt. She didn’t particularly like that they were doing this.

“Are you --?” she sounded irritated, then stopped herself. They were talking about her tail, weren’t they?

“Oh.” She sighed. “Yeah, it’s real.” Chloe slowly lifted and swung her tail around to tap the shoulder of the twin on her right. “And no, contrary to popular belief I can’t shift. If I could, I’d probably be allowed to leave sometimes.” She could almost taste the bitterness in her own voice.

The demon-girl quietly debated the merits of asking permission before draining one of them. This was getting more than a little ridiculous. She could barely stand, and it showed from her shaky legs.

“So, are you two some kind of superpower clones, or just twins?”

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

Yes, the brothers were identical, down to almost every part of their body. They got their tattoos, piercing, and even wore they hair and clothing the same as one another. They had pretty much always done that, with the occasional adding something different to what they were wearing when they wanted to help people figure out whom they wore, or at least think they knew who they wore. The brother's often switching who was who with ease because of how identical they were to one another. When their power caused them to mind meld they would sometimes forget who was who. For the most part however they were good at telling the fact that one was Casper and the other one was Jasper for a few small body details and personality that if someone really got to know them would be able to pick up on it.

They hear the irritation in the girl's voice, probably thinking they were talking about her butt, but they were not. Nope, it was all about the tail and the temptation to pull on it a little and possibly check just how connected it was to her and if it could be removed. She then seemed to realize what they were talking about her tail and admitted that it was indeed real. Even poking at one of their shoulders with it to prove the point. Jasper had been the one to be poked by the tail and moves to grab a hold of it to get a better look and feel for it. "Interesting. So do you feel pain in it?" Jasper asked, honestly curious and thinking of this girl already in a toy aspect and needed to know about something that could end up causing her to break, and you didn't want your toys breaking right as soon as you got them. She also added that she could not shift and then something about not being able to leave. Jasper looking to his brother confused a little bit.

"Mutants who can’t control or hide their powers can't leave the school." Casper pointed out to his brother, having actually read the little book of information the school had given them when they arrived. Jasper having skimmed it and figured his brother would fill him in on it, which was more or less true. "Ah, right and a tail is not that easy to hide." Jasper said with a nod, understanding. Then both brothers chuckling at the question of if they were superpower clones or just twins. "Twins." They said together and then exchanged a look with one another, as if debating if they should show her their actual power or not. "Our power is Physical Prime, basically think every part of the human body that they can physically do, it on a higher level for us." Jasper said, attempting to explain it in simple terms, Casper nodding with his brother words.

[Chloe Black]

The guy grabbed her tail. He didn’t ask, just sort of… grabbed it. Chloe was feeling too weak to pull it away with much force, though she wanted to. She squirmed. “It’s really sensitive. So don’t try to hurt it please?” She only barely resisted the urge to start draining him without warning. “But, I mean, at least it’s easier to hide than the legs or the horns.” She would give the boys a few more seconds to satisfy their curiosity about her tail before doing something about it. It wasn’t like there were a lot of people who had tails, or that there was a well-established set of social rules about touching other people’s tails. She could forgive them.

The twins were superhuman in a lot of ways they didn’t want to bother explaining to her, or something like that. Chloe nodded; she could respect their decision not to tell her everything about their abilities. She usually didn’t tell people about the part where she needed to feed on people’s life force, or souls, or whatever it was she drained from people. The horns and everything were already too much for most people to deal with.

“So…” This exchange was already getting really awkward. “I guess you two are new? Or new-ish? I’m Chloe, by the way.”

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

Yes, Jasper was one to act and then think later. So asking to grab a hold of her tail did not even cross his mind, not even after he had a hold of it and was looking at it with his brother. Still hearing the girl point out that it was sensitive and to try and not hurt it. Well that was just too tempting to see just how much pain she could take with this tail and how much they would have to pull on it before it would be removed from her body. The temptation was there yes, but they were not going to be so cruel to a possible new toy, not yet. That would be like breaking it before you even got it out of the box and that would have been foolish indeed. "Does it get in the way when you pee?" Jasper went ahead and asked since girls sat down to pee and all so he wondered if her tail took a swim while she did her business or if she just lifted it up like now and kept it out of the toilet.

"Wait legs or horns?" Casper asked after giving the tail a poke himself and then looked to the girl. "Sounds like things that would be easy to hide. Wear a hat, wear pants, and tuck in your tail." Casper pointed out, not seeing if those parts or whatever you would count them as needed to be hidden as hard to hide. Jasper now let go of the girl's tail and started to walk around a circle, to give the girl a full look over to see what else they might have missed, because a tail was pretty distracting and the first to catch their eyes. As for their power they were not trying to hide it from her that was just the simplest way to explain it in their minds. If she wanted to know more details or did not really understand it, then she could ask and they would answer. Simple as that.

The boys then looked at her and gave a nod as a smile appeared on their faces at the question and the introduced of herself. "We are new yes. Been here for maybe a week now or maybe a little more." Jasper said as he moved to stand next to his brother and lean on his shoulder a little bit. "I'm Casper Emory and this is my twin brother Jasper Emory." Casper said doing the introduction as the boys more or less put on a charming smile. "Have you been at this academy long Chloe?" The brother asked together, this time being more of a coincidence that they both had been wondering, so worked out well with their occasional saying things in unison.

[Chloe Black]

Chloe blinked. Jasper’s question left her flustered. “Er, no. Not too much. I mean, I can work around it. Uh, do you ask every girl you meet about what they do in the bathroom?” She started to tug her tail away from his hand, but they seemed ready to let it go anyway. Only now, Jasper was walking around behind her and ogling her. She could almost feel him looking her over. It was starting to creep her out.

“Most hats don’t work,” she explained, “And my legs don’t bend like yours. I’d give myself away if I stood up. Even if I sat in a wheelchair the whole time, I’d need some way to fit normal shoes on my, uh, toe-feet, or whatever you call these.” Chloe gestured towards her digitigrade legs, the lower parts of which were entirely visible thanks to the skirt she was wearing. The way they were bent just to support her weight and keep her balanced, it would be clear that she’d need a lot more than just pants to hide them. Aside from the legs, the tail, and the black horns coming out of her forehead, the only unusual thing about her appearance was how exhausted she looked.

“I came here earlier this semester,” she answered them. The saying-things-at-the-same-time thing, while formerly endearing, was also starting to make her a little uncomfortable now. She forced a smile, then took a deep breath. “And uh, this whole ‘standing up’ thing isn’t really doing it for me right now. So if you don’t mind…” she started shuffling towards a nearby bench.

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

"Nope. Not every girl has a tail. You are the first we have met with an actual real tail." Jasper pointed out, because of course he did not just ask every girl they met if she was able to keep her tail out of the toilet or not. Yes he understood why Chloe had asked the question, but because of the way she had asked if he felt like it was a weird question. At least he gave her a real answer and did not just remain silent and give her a look like she was crazy or something. He had been tempted to do such a thing, but he didn't for the sake of the whole 'she is a new toy' thing. He was also busy with looking her over to see everything that she was pointing out about herself, nodding a little and even reaching out as if he was about to touch, but he didn't. He still was leaning in pretty close to get a good look and would mumble something under her breath that was not really able to be made out.

"Your mutation is very interesting. You would have been interesting in the circus and brought in lots of money." Casper said with his brother Jasper nodding to his brother’s words. This was more or less a compliment since the boys were from the circus after all and she would have been like a real circus freak. Circus freak again being a compliment in their eyes, even if freak was not really a word that one would give as a compliment in most; if not all, situations. Still, she would have brought in the money and if this was back in the old school circus, she would for sure bring in the money; and possibly be treated mean by a few visitors and possibly other workers, but this was the present where people were treated a lot better! Sort of...right? Eh, the brother didn't really care too much because where they had more or less grew up and worked, things were good.

"Oh, so still sort of new." Jasper said as he messed with a stray hair on his brother's head for a moment. Both the brother giving a simple nod when Chloe pointed out that standing was not working out for her all that well. "Can you make it to the bench? If not, we could aid you." Casper offered, because they were nice guys, well nice guys with hidden motives of course. "Why are you so weak by the way? You look like you are about to crumple into a pile of...something. You don't like this mountain weather?" Jasper asked as he walked with his brother, as the two of them followed behind Chloe, watching her tail for a moment.

[Chloe Black]

Chloe interpreted the circus comment as a thinly veiled insult. “I’m sure I would,” she said dryly, nodding along with them. “Good to know that nonpeople like me have options.” Tasteless cracks at her appearance aside, she really hated that she was seriously considering the circus as a career choice. But hey, it was better than the next option down, which involved being an incredibly niche prostitute.

And now they were following her. Why were they following her? “I think I can make it, thanks.”

But even with their offer parried away, they were still following her and talking to her. But Casper (or was it Jasper?) had asked a good question, and one of them might even be willing to help her fix the problem she was dealing with. “It’s part of my, uh, whole weird mutant… thing,” she explained. “One of the cool things is I can drain strength from people to become super strong, but the crappy part is I end up like this if I go too long without doing that.” The demon girl set her backpack down, turned around, and slowly, carefully so as not to hurt her tail, sat down on the bench. “Speaking of which... either of you feel like donating your life force to the worthy cause of me-not-feeling-like-shit?” She gave them each a weak smile. “It’ll only make you feel weak for like ten minutes, and I’m told it feels kinda nice.”

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

The way Chloe spoke her words dryly made it pretty clear to the boys that she had not taken what they said as a compliment. Well she didn't really know them so of course she would not have known that they themselves were in the circus as well. "If you are not happy with how you look you could try and chop off your tail and burn your horns. As for the legs, well I got nothing." Jasper said as he and his brother did indeed follow the girl to where she was going to grab a seat on the bench. Casper pulling out a red peice of cloth in his hand, planning on doing a magic trick with it. Jasper was also pulling out one, but his was blue instead of red. The boys didn't say anything as she said that she could make it. Well if she didn't want the help that was fine by them, any need to waste their time with helping her out if she didn't want or need it. So for now they moved to grab a seat on the bench with her. Casper sitting on her left and Jasper sitting on her right.

The brothers looked at her as she explained her mutation and then exchanged a look at one another and then back to Chloe as she went on about her ability. So as they understood it she had to 'feed' off of the strength from people in order to keep her own strength up. So in simple man’s terms she was more or less taking their energy, like she had some kind of sugar deficiency and had to get it from other people. Yet she called it life force and asked if they were okay with giving her some of it. Uh...no? Who would willingly give their life force that was their life? Unless she really was taking their energy then it was okay. Apparently it would feel good to which had the brothers sharing a glance at one another again. "My only question is if you are really feeding of our life force or our energy. Cause I would like to die at the normal time I would have died without someone taking my life force." Casper said as he laid the red cloth on his palm that he had lying flat.

"Then my only question is how do you partake in someone’s life force?" Jasper asked, because he felt like that was the most important part after all. He too did the same thing with the cloth that he had in his hand that Casper had done. Did she just have to touch them? Look at them? Or was she going to be getting all super handsy somewhere in order to make sure it felt good?

[Chloe Black]

She shrugged off the comments about ‘fixing’ her appearance. She had considered going to such lengths, but she knew that her legs were beyond fixing, the horns would keep growing in no matter what she did, and… well, she actually kind of liked her tail.

Jasper’s question was easy. “All I need is skin contact. Doesn’t matter where or how. I could poke your shoulder or something.” Because Chloe knew that she’d pretty much turned into a quasi-succubus, she knew what Jasper was thinking. She refused to acknowledge that she knew, but she knew.

Casper’s was a little more difficult. “As for what it actually does to you…” she just shrugged. “I don’t actually know, other than it making you kinda weak for a few minutes. I mean, I don’t think it does anything lasting or awful to you, after all the times I’ve done it.” That didn’t sound super reassuring. She continued. “But… I don’t think life force is a thing, though. I mean, even if it is, it probably doesn’t work in a way that, uh, the amount you have is the same thing as how much longer you’ll live. And…”

She was about to keep rambling, but she noticed the red and blue cloths. “…What are those for?”

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

"Ah, seems simple enough. Why not just do it to people while you are walking in the hall instead of asking someone?" Jasper asked because he had an ability where all he had to do was touch someone then he probably would just do it without asking. Unless it only worked with someone permission, and she did say that it left the person feeling a little bit weak so they likely would notice. Well she probably could hurt someone if she actually tired, the brothers could not actually see her getting into a fight or even winning because of the vibe they were getting from her. Might have been just because she had not fed for a while, that they were feeling like she was weak and the emotional type but they could not be sure. Nope, they would have to be around her when she would a little more on the energized side. He still was wondering about the whole how it felt to be touched while she used her power.

The brother listened as she seemed to try and explain her ability, sharing glances at one another. Chloe didn't seem too sure of her ability so how could the brothers just allow her to take their energy. No doubt taking energy from them would do her a lot of good because of their power. They could use their power so long as they were in a certain distance of one another, their ability being the strongest when right next to one another. They didn't have to rely on anyone but each other while Chloe needed people to be around so she could well no look like she was about to blow away in the wind if the breeze was too hard. "So you are not really sure. You don't think its life force but you never looked into it? What does your trainer say?" Casper asked, knowing that people were supposed to get trainers while they were at the school, the brothers as well needed to sign up with a trainer so they could get better at their ability and get to the standards that the school wanted.

There was the question then about the cloths that had the brothers putting them away since they didn't need it at the moment. "Just something for a magic trick." Casper informed her as he and his brother both stood up and next to one another right in front of Chloe. Then they both extended out a bare hand to her, figuring why not let her get a little bit of this energy life force that she apparently needed. They didn't understand it, but were a little bit curious. Plus then she would owe them. "You can take some from us, but if your head starts spinning, you start chanting something, or we feel too weird..." Jasper started to say and then leaned in just a little so he could whisper to her.

"I will personal beat you into that bench you are sitting on." Jasper said this of course with a friendly smile, but meant it because no one hurt his brother for sure and he was the quick to anger one.

[Chloe Black]

“I could get in tons of trouble if I did it that way,” Chloe answered Jasper.

“My trainer has never used the words ‘life force.’ Probably because it’s not even a real thing. And I haven’t even had this power for a year, so we can’t know about long term stuff yet. I mean, your power could be magically giving everyone cancer or something. It’s not like you’d know.” These were the kinds of things Chloe told herself to sleep better at night, to worry less about whether she had been slowly killing her friends.

The demon girl was taken aback by Jasper’s threat. “I’ll… try to keep all that horror movie shit to a dead minimum, then.” Not that they’d even be able to stop her; it was more of a courtesy than anything else.

She took their hands. Immediately, they all started to feel warm and fuzzy, like they’d all just received their kiss from someone they loved on a romantic evening. In seconds, Chloe went from feeling like a hospital patient to feeling like she could win an Olympic event. Only then did she realize that she’d never tried draining two people at the same time before. It seemed to be working out well for her, at least. Her grip loosened; she would let this continue until the twins pulled their hands away.

With luck, Jasper wasn’t about to decide he felt weird and try to punch her out.

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

“True. Think there was some rule about using your powers against other students or something.” Jasper said with a small shrug and looked to his brother who also gave a shrug since he didn’t know for sure either. They both more or less read the book; Casper read a bit more, but there were still things they were trying to understand and get. Chloe was then explaining that her trainer never used the word life force before, which did make the boys feel a little better. So it did have to be more so based upon just taking someone’s energy then. That made sense and was less of a big deal to give her some then since you could always get energy back with a little rest and what not. She then pointed out the fact that she had been still new to using her power and that no one could really tell what other effects their power was going to have on someone later down on the road. The boys did have to laugh at that part because they were pretty sure that if anyone would get cancer from their power it would be them since it affect their body and not others.

“You might want to refrain from asking people to feed off of their life force then and instead say their energy.” Casper advice or else he could see that Chloe was going to end up in this situation again without someone wanting to give their energy to her with her calling it a life force. “Our power only affects us by the way, so we doubt it would cause someone cancer.” Jasper pointed out, feeling like it was important for her to know that yes their power didn’t outright hurt anyone like hers possibly did. Bit of a guilt trip they could use on her later if the need arise for it. Chloe then let them know that she was going to try and keep the whole horror movie stuff to a minimum. “Good.” Jasper said with a nod and a smile, but still ready to knock some sense into her she did any of the things he had listed. He had no problem hitting a girl and nor did his brother if they girl started, but Jasper was fine hitting first. Jasper just had to be sure since she could have very well passed for an innocent version of something out of a horror book or movie, one of those good looking monsters.

She took their hands and the brother more or less remained still, but Jasper still had a fist formed, one that did loosen a little bit at the feeling. They felt warm and fuzzy…and it was just weird. Jasper was tempted to pull his hand back, but Casper didn’t do anything so Jasper held fast. Waiting for a moment or two to see that Chloe looked like she was doing better. When her grip did loosen Casper pulled his hand back and Jasper did so as well, immediately putting his hands into his pockets. “Better now?” Casper asked with a hinted smirk on his lips at a thought he had. They helped her out, she owed them, and now they had some small amount of control over her even if she didn’t realize it. Not a control as in a mutation power, but their own form of control with words and actions.