(no subject)

The story begins with five million dollars.

That's how much I set out to donate to the academy, 'cuz money for schools is always good, and the place must be decent if Stephen, Don, and Syd work there. Cat ended up giving me a quick tour, and in the course of that tour we ran into Rose, who invited us in for something to drink.

And promptly started bleeding out of her nose. Yeah, Cat and I both noticed, and we all but dragged the truth out of her...

It seems Seamus and Rose have come under mental attack. He gets possessed, she gets pulped. This is obviously something for concern, and I offer my help. I head out for a meeting -- more on that later -- and come back to find Seamus has returned.

Much discussion ensues. And I, I do everything I can to be reasonable and helpful... Seamus and Rose doubted themselves, so I brought their minds into harmony with each other so that they might experience each other's true feelings, and perhaps gain some resolve from that -- and then I feel it. A nagging, cancerous feeling buried deep within Rose's chi. A mental link -- present even as we spoke. Made by someone masterful.

I tried to sever it. Rose lapsed into seizures.

There was a catch to this situation. You see, if the mental link was severed, it would inflct a period of seizures on Rose -- and worse, damage her brain in such a way as to leave her mildly eplieptic, permenantly. If the mental link was allowed to remain, she would quickly die from brain hemhorraging.

I told Seamus and Rose this. They both said to sever the link. I did.

I can't express, though, how terrible it made me feel to do this. If I was only better in Life, if I only had greater skill, I could have prevented this. I could have healed Rose, repaired the damage. I did not, and now she must live with the results of my failure for the rest of her life.

I scarred myself, in reminder. I will set things right. I will set things right.

Provided Don lets me live. He discovered the situation, or rather, I told him about it, and he responded exactly as I expected him to -- with extreme hostility. I can't blame him, nor can I expect him to understand or believe what I tell him. I know what I saw -- that Rose's death would have been quick and inevitable without quick action -- he has no reason whatsoever to believe me. It's a simple matter to believe that I acted irresponsibly and foolishly. I am, of course, just a kid. I don't know what I'm doing.

I honestly believe that Don will consider me to have demonstrated a level of irresponsibility that poses a direct and immediate threat to his family or the people he cares about, and he and Sydney will act to eliminate me before I do any further damage.

In other news, Andrea seems to have finally decided to stop trying to run away from me. The opposite, in fact, is now true -- my baby twin sister appears to be crushing on me. In a very uncomfortable way. How do I rationally address this? Incest is not the best. Obviously I'm not going to do anything, but...

There is one bright spot in this nightmare of existence. I met a potential hot naive ninja girl. Her name is, I think, Veurwen (how do you get the spelling of such a name? It can't be phonetic...), and she made the foolish mistake of agreeing to a spar. She says she can take care of herself -- and she's Cat's friend, come to think of it. It's been really the only bright spot in my life.

It has been, however, three weeks since the first time I saw her, and the second time. She doesn't come around often. Who knows? It may be another month, or it may even be never. So I shouldn't get my hopes up.