Issue 1 Downtime

((open))

'Roland' blinked several times sitting behind 'his' desk.

How the hell did I get into Sackville's office...and why is my headache gone?

Haley looked around, and then down at her hands as they lay over an essay--her own essay, actually--one hand gripping a red pen that was in the middle of writing a large C at the end of a paper.

"Oh fuck you, Sackv--!" Haley stopped herself, as it was most certainly not her voice coming out of her mouth. And that wasn't her hand. And she didn't wear these shitty old man clothes. And...

Haley let out a scream that would have been an ear-piercing shriek coming from her own mouth but was just....weird...coming from Roland's.

"Is everything alright in here?" Raven, looking like Raven, came in and asked.

"The fuck it isn't alright! My powers went crazy or some shit and now I'm in this creepy old bastard's body and I don't even have my shitty powers anymore, and Sackville's cologne smells like grandpa, and oh my god what if I'm stuck like this forever!?!" Haley was pacing around the room furiously, gesticulating wildly and almost in tears.

"Woah, woah, calm it down? Like, one thing at a time?"

"Do I look like fucking Haley right now? That's the fucking problem!"

"I would never think to question your sexual habits, professor...," Raven smirked.

"Oh shut the fuck up you stupid gothy whore. I mean that I *am* Haley. I told you! My fucking telepathy went apeshit and now I'm in this geezer's body!"

"No need to shout. I can hear you....I can hear everything..."

"You're a telepath too? I thought you...just did that magic shit."

"I....professor? No...you're not him..." Raven blinked, her face...changing slightly before snapping into place.

"Why is everyone....why are we all shouting?"

"....did your face just melt a bit and then snap back, or am I going crazier than I thought?"

"I...I don't know...I may have...may have lost it...myself..."

"How the hell do we fix this. You...well...I get Professor McManus or Asters would know..."

"I think...I think McManus....is in trouble..."

"How do you know?"

"I.....I'm not...that is..."

"You're not what?"

"I....why won't the voices stop?"

"Because fuck telepathy. Here... Like....try and just focus on like a memory that makes you feel happy and calm and shit."

"N...like.....they're all FIGHTING. Why are they fighting?"

Cassiel poked his head into the office. "Hey, why's everyone shouting?"

"Oh god professor, get me the hell out of here! It's Haley! I...I don't know how, but I'm in Professor Sackville's body."

Cassiel frowned, looking for any psychic connections. "See, if I didn't know how dumb it would sound, I'd ask 'are you sure about that,' because I don't see any psi-links active... How did you manage that, Haley?"

"I don't know! I was outside and these assholes attacked the school, and then all of a sudden I was in here, grading my own paper.

"Raven" was emitting a TON of psychic noise as she tried to keep Sam's powers in check.

Mike glanced over at Sam, frowned, and then his eyes went wide. "Ohhhh shit."

"All right, take my hand," he said, walking over to 'Sam'. "Been years since we've done this... but it's just like riding a bike. Let's get you calmed down."

"What's her deal? She's not stuck in someone else's body, I am!" Haley whined, not noticing that that wasn't Raven's actual body.

"Yeah, I'm not so sure about that," Mike answered, piece by piece putting a psychic shield up around 'Sam' and easing his own mind in to help put some order to the chaos.

"They're all FIGHTING. They're fighting EVERYWHERE. I need to make them stop..."

"You need to stop," he said firmly, putting a mental emphasis on his words. "Focus inward. Just follow my lead, I'll show you how."

"...OK..."

She could feel him drawing her in, blocking everything else out, bringing up a silence that grew every moment. "Just find your center... look for what defines yourself. That will help draw the distinction between your thoughts and everything else, and that will help hold all the other thoughts back." He looked up at 'Haley'. "Call the med center. See if they know what's going on yet."

"What defines me?" Raven asked, thinking the witchiest of witchy thoughts.

Haley instinctively reached for a cell phone and then scowled as she found a phone was probably state of the art when she was in diapers. "Oh what the fuck is this piece of shit. My grandparents have better phones. What the hell is the number, I don't even know if this thing has contacts."

Oh for... "Think of a tree," he amended. "Think of that tree, and imagine it as your shelter, your protection, and let it push away everything else. There's only you, nothing else is allowed there."

"Wh...why a tree?"

"Because it's natural. You need something natural to focus the magic and channel the goddess. Picture a tree, and it'll be your center to keep everything contained," he said, shamelessly pulling stuff out of his ass since... really, all she needed was something she could believe to serve as the foundation of control.

"A tree...nature...birch...birch in the fire goes to represent what the Lady knows..."