Testing Control [open]

[Caitlin Collins]

With the tumult in Caitlin's life finally fading, and after the conversation she had had in the hospital with D'rorah regarding the amount of elemental control she had, Cait had begun trying to harness that control even more. It was not by any means on a regular schedule like she was aware some of the other lightfighters had for their training, especially with end of year exams approaching, but there was certainly a concerted effort. However, she had not quite progressed to training with her urumi yet and as it was, really only knew how to wield it without harming herself every time; although even that was an accomplishment. The idea of actually fighting someone with it was something she was still very wary of and trying not to think too much about.

But as far as Cait's elemental powers were concerned, she was slowly becoming acquainted with the idea that apparently she had much more control than was normal for a Shadow Warrior. As much as it had surprised her at first, she was now aware of how she had never really seen any of the other Shadow Warriors wield their element with any real prowess. It made her wonder just how much she could push her powers, and the fact that using them required enough concentration to keep her mind away from other things only served to make the task something she looked forward to – which would certainly not be true if she was training with her urumi.

Pushing the door of her elemental room open, Cait left it slightly ajar so she would be able to hear if anyone else entered the Room of Requirement. Setting herself down besides the river, she dropped one hand into the water and swilled it around for a moment, enjoying the calmness it brought. Then she raised a hand, concentrating and bringing a slim strand of liquid with her, smiling as she saw it rise. She twisted her hand and it began to spin slowly. She had tried before to control larger amounts of water, but it seemed she was far better at creating intricacies in smaller pools. It wasn't really particularly useful, but Caitlin figured that the more control she could get in any aspect of her elemental powers, the better. Who knew when it would come in handy, and it might in time help her to control larger amounts of water.

As absorbed as she was, watching the water turn this way and that at her direction, she didn't hear the entry of someone else to the Room of the Requirement. But at the sound of the door to her room creaking, her head spun and her control of the water waned. The small amount she had been spinning returned to the water with a fairly quiet splash that got her arm a little wet, but her surprise had apparently affected the rest of the water and without any more warning, a large spray rose up from the end of the river, heading to fall straight down on the person who had just entered.

[Stephen Wade]

Stephen was walking absentmindedly along the corridor, thinking about where he should go; he didn't feel like going all the way back down to his common room, but he also didn't want to wander around like a twerp, as he was doing now. He was just thinking about going down to the Great Hall to get a drink of water (since he was desperately thirsty), so he backtracked and started going the opposite way along the corridor, when he caught sight of a portrait on the stone wall. Drawing closer, he saw a man, and the caption read:

GILGAMESH
Sumerian King
Buried under the waters of a river

Stephen considered this. He had heard of Gilgamesh before. But what was this about being buried under the waters of a river? Did Gilgamesh have Elemental powers? He had heard of Elemental Magic before, but had never been interested enough to try to find out more about it all. But now, curiosity had gotten the better of him. He began to pace back and forth. He knew that the Elemental Magics were water, earth, air, and...what were the other ones?

He just remembered that fire was another one when he heard a small pop. Turning around, he saw a door in the wall that hadn't been there before. What was this about? Stephen frowned, then his expression cleared as he remembered about the Room of Requirement. Wondering what the room would show him, he cautiously pushed open the door and entered.

Stephen saw a large room with a table set in the middle. Chairs were seated around this table with Chinese symbols that he couldn't understand. Around the table and chairs were five doors with similar Chinese symbols. So, this was what thinking about Elemental Magic brought him? Stephen was considering this when he noticed that one of the doors was slightly ajar. Afraid that he would disturb whoever or whatever was in there, Stephen began to back out of the room, but his curiosity got the better of him and he walked through the slightly open door.

An odd scene met his eyes. Cait was sitting on the edge of a river. A river, indoors? Blinking rapidly, Stephen finally saw his fate whisking toward him. A huge spurt of water was flying his way, and there was no way to get out of his situation.

Turning around, Stephen tried to run for it, but too late; the water had fallen down on his head and clothes, drenching him. His hair, which had been neat and tidy not two seconds ago, was now hanging over his forehead heavily, and his shoes and socks were drenched as well. They would surely take hours to dry out. Blinking rapidly to clear his eyes of water, Stephen thought to himself dryly, Well, at least my thirst is gone.

[Caitlin Collins]

((Sorry, it wasn't really mentioned in my post, but the room of requirement would at first open up into a large room with a table and several chairs with Chinese symbols on in the middle, and five doors around the walls also with the symbols. The room that Cait's in has its door left slightly ajar, so he could probably hear the running water of the river from the main room))

Cait gasped in shock as the wave of water fell onto a small figure that had just stepped into the room, the rest of the river increasing its pace without any effort from her. It had never done anything like this before around her, so she didn't know what was different about now. Maybe just because she was in her Elemental Room and had been concentrating on the water before... so it had just reacted with surprise just as she had when someone had entered. Apparently leaving the door ajar to let her know whether anyone else entered the room of requirement hadn't worked, because she had been focussing too much on the water she was controlling to hear anything else. Even now, the sound of the fast-running water seemed loud to her.

She quickly rose to her feet in the few seconds it had taken for all of that to run through her mind and hurried to the door, her eyes widening again as she saw it wasn't another of the lightfighters – who surely wouldn't have appreciated being drenched – but instead was one of the Hufflepuff first years she vaguely knew – Stephen.

[yellow]"Stephen! What are you doing here? Look at you, you're soaking,"[/yellow] she exclaimed, drawing her wand and pointing it at him. [yellow]"Tergeo,"[/yellow] she murmured, pulling the water off him with the spell but also adding a little effort with her own elemental powers so there wouldn't be any dampness left on him or his clothes. She dragged it to the side, directing it with her wand before dropping it back into the river and turning back to him, pocketing her wand. [yellow]"How did you even get in here?"[/yellow] she asked with some concern, hoping that it was a mistake and that he hadn't somehow been dragged into this war.

[Stephen Wade]

((Ah, sorry for the misunderstanding. For the sake of RP, I'll fix my previous post.))

Stephen staggered backwards and fell down; he was completely winded. Caitlin ran over to him. When she asked him what he was doing there, he couldn't think of anything to say. "Wet," he mumbled, pushing his hair out of his eyes and rubbing out the last of the water. "I am wet."

He silently accepted her siphoning charm and, once he was completely dry, he got to his feet. "I saw a portrait on the wall...a person that had Elemental powers...and I was curious."

Stephen paused for a moment, beginning to be back to his old self, "You know, I saw this portrait with a caption underneath saying that he could control water. I was wondering what that could mean, so I was pacing back and forth...and this room appeared. I stepped in and I saw that your room was slightly open..." he trailed off. "I'm sorry," he said finally and with his voice full of dejection, "I messed up your control..."

[Caitlin Collins]

Caitlin blinked as he mentioned a portrait of someone with elemental powers, wondering what that was doing so close to the Room of Requirement. Surely that might catch someone's attention... someone who wasn't just innocently curious like Stephen. Or at least, that's what she assumed he was... he was only a first year, after all. The chances of someone like him serving Dark Phoenix seemed preposterous. He had always seemed relatively friendly when she had seen him about in classes or the common room. Sometimes she had seen him alone working in the library or late at night in the common room, but other than that he seemed to get on well with most people. And besides, the Elemental Rooms probably had some protection against proponents of Dark Phoenix entering... or she would hope so.

[yellow]"What portrait? Where is it?"[/yellow] she questioned, thinking that perhaps she should mention it to Dee... although she probably knew it was there already and didn't think it was worth worrying about. Caitlin couldn't really see D'rorah not noticing something like that. But the fact that that was how Stephen had entered the Room of Requirement might affect her judgement on it, perhaps. [yellow]"I don't know why that let you in... maybe just because you were thinking about water,"[/yellow] she suggested, shrugging her shoulders. She didn't want him to have any inkling of what this room might be, for his safety as well as maintaining the secret. [yellow]"I... I just come here to relax, this is what it summoned when I asked for somewhere nice and calm."[/yellow]

She blinked again in surprise as he mentioned her control, floundering for a few moments as she thought of how to address that. Of course she couldn't tell him the truth, and she had just made a show of getting her wand out so it was obvious that she hadn't been using that to control the water. Perhaps it was best to just deny it altogether... although she wasn't really very good at lying and always thought people were going to see through her, more often than not they seemed to just accept what she was saying. Of course, just because they accepted it outwardly didn't mean that they actually believed her. But she couldn't afford to have Stephen asking questions about her and any possible link she might have to elemental powers, so she would have to make this somewhat convincing.

[yellow]"What do you mean, control?"[/yellow] she asked, appearing confused as she feigned innocence. Then a dawning expression of comprehension appeared. [yellow]"Ohh... you mean the water? That wasn't me... that's never happened before,"[/yellow] she told him, adding a bit of truth into it. She really didn't know what had caused it and she had never done something like that before. She wasn't really sure whether it had been subconscious on her part or the room itself reacting to her surprise.

[Stephen Wade]

Stephen was slowly regaining his composure. When Cait asked where the portrait was, he replied, "I don't know, out in the hall back there...pretty close to this room, probably." He trailed off and listened to Cait talk. "Hm, maybe I was thinking about water...but then what was that room back there, with all the Chinese paraphernalia in it? Surely that room doesn't open up just when someone thinks about water?"

He paused, then replied to Cait's reference to control. Then Stephen said, "Uh, well it sure happened just a moment ago. Even if you haven't done it before, surely there must have been something connected with..." he shook his head, trying to think of what he was saying, "Well, it's hard to explain," Stephen said uncertainly.

[Caitlin Collins]

Caitlin made a note to go and look for the picture whenever she next got the chance, but now was certainly not the time. She didn't want Stephen to get any more suspicious than he already was, so just dismissed it for now with a nod at his words. She hesitated again when he asked about the room outside. He'd recognised it as Chinese, obviously, although that wasn't too difficult. His use of the word paraphernalia surprised her as well; unless she was very much mistaken, not many eleven or twelve year olds would be using such words let alone know what that meant. It seemed he was intelligent, if his logic so far had not already proved that. She couldn't give him any more clues... but she didn't really know what to say about the room outside.

[yellow]"I don't know... I was thinking about a place to relax, so it's not just thinking about water. I can't read Chinese so I don't know what it says. It's just... always there. Maybe it just opens different places to different people depending on what relaxes them,"[/yellow] she suggests, thinking that sounded plausible enough.

She blinked in slight surprise as he blatantly disregarded her words that it had not been her and countered her. [yellow]"That really wasn't me, Stephen. Surely I'd have felt it if it had been me,"[/yellow] she points out, trying to reason with him. [yellow]"Just because I was here, doesn't mean it was me. It could have been you. Or just the room,"[/yellow] she adds hurriedly, not wanting him to say anything to anyone else about how he might have Elemental Powers. [yellow]"Probably just the room. You wanted water, so it sent it straight at you."[/yellow]

[Stephen Wade]

Stephen shrugged, "Okay, so Chinese relaxes you?? Or did you mean...water? So wait, this room basically opens up to that Chinese stuff every time someone wants to come in? And then one of those side doors open based on what you needed?" Scratching his head, Stephen said, "No, I'm inclined to think that that's not true...because, well, what does that have to do with...whatever someone needs?" He paused again, then said, "Well, it certainly seems like you're trying to hide something from me...because you've been countering everything I say, no matter how sensible it is." He didn't want to sound insolent, but it seemed the truth.

But when Caitlin began to talk about how it might have been him or the room, Stephen reconsidered. He doubted that he could do such a thing subconsciously, so it seemed as though the room itself was the culprit.

"Okay, I'll buy the room," Stephen replied, but he was still curious. "But what's to rule out you? How do I know you're not lying to me? For that matter, how do you know that I'm not lying to you? We both seem like decent people. We both have an equal chance of lying to each other without the other realizing it."

[Caitlin Collins]

Caitlin was a little taken aback by Stephen's reaction to what she was saying. She had expected him to accept what she was saying, because what reason did she have to be lying that he would know of? She shook her head at his words – at least part of it he had misunderstood, which might help. [yellow]"No, I meant this particular room relaxes me. The river's part of it, but not everything. It just seems peaceful in here to me. I'd guess, although I don't know, that this is what is produced when people come in here wanting to relax, and the door to the place that relaxes them is open. Like... multi-purpose, so more than one person can use it at once. For other things people wanted, it would be something else, without any of this. As far as I understand it, anyway... I've never tried to get in for anything else."[/yellow]

But now, she realised, she had the worry of Stephen coming back another time to try and get into a different room... and with Wysteria staying there, it would not change. It probably wouldn't even let him in again if he didn't think of the right thing... but thinking of relaxing and then being unable to get into any of the rooms would clearly show that either she was lying, or didn't have any idea what she was talking about.

Caitlin sighed in exasperation as Stephen persisted. She would have looked down at him, except annoyingly he was several inches taller than her despite being only a first year. [yellow]"Why would I be lying to you anyway? And why would you be lying, you're the one asking all the questions, and it soaked you,"[/yellow] she pointed out, frowning a little. This was proving much more difficult than she had anticipated.

[Stephen Wade]

Stephen frowned as he considered this. Caitlin certainly didn't seem like one to lie, but she appeared uncomfortable at the moment. He wondered if she could truly be lying to him.

He supposed that it made sense that that room back there opened up to everything, and this was the room that relaxed Cait. But then again, why would the room open up into Chinese figures and symbols anyway? Stephen argued, "Well, but what about that room back there with all the Chinese stuff? What does it have to do with the room in general?" He paused, then continued, "Yes, I don't see why or how that Chinese room is connected to the Room of Requirement." Stephen waited for Cait's reply eagerly, because he wanted to hear her explanation.

[Caitlin Collins]

Caitlin continued to watch him, hoping for some sign that he actually believed her and would leave soon. So much for coming here to relax... that part was true, at least. But now she had ended up arguing with some first year who didn't have a clue what he'd stumbled upon and was being ridiculously stubborn about it. Hardly something that would calm her nerves and make her able to concentrate on the coming exams.

[yellow]"I said, I don't know what the Chinese says. I've never even been to China, or studied anything about it. I don't know what that stuff means or anything. I just come here to relax!"[/yellow] she said, a little more harshly than she had intended or ever really intended. The pressure of all these questions and coming up with answers was taking its toll, especially when she knew his safety and the safety of herself and her allies could rest on it. [yellow]"Why am I supposed to have all the answers anyway? Because I was here first?"[/yellow] she demanded, a little defensively. [yellow]"The Room of Requirement is always mysterious, if you managed to find it and realise what it was then you should know that!"[/yellow]

[Stephen Wade]

Stephen scratched his head and even flinched a little as Caitlin assaulted his arguments. He usually wasn't so stubborn (he was generally quite an agreeable person), but this subject in particular was peculiar to him and made him want to argue, a strangely new feeling for him. As he considered these strangers of emotions, he eventually remembered why he was feeling that way. Angrily, he retorted, "Well, you were the one that was here first, yes. And you were the one who found that river first. So, you obviously knew something about all this before I even got here."

He paused, then added in a defensive tone to add to his irritation, "And I was the one that was soaked in water, not you. And it came as a total surprise, too, because I didn't even know that I would find water in that room, let alone having it come down on me! Surely I still have the small right to still be a little confused!"

Stephen scratched his head as he considered this, then shook his head to himself. That was a pretty stupid argument, he thought, but he had already said it and there was no taking back what he had.

[Caitlin Collins]

Caitlin sighed in frustration as Stephen continued to answer back, still not really saying anything new except that she should have the answers. The fact that she did have the answers was besides the point; her lack of knowledge about the room should be easily plausible for him to accept, he was just refusing to.

Without warning, she turned abruptly away from Stephen and ignored any new queries sent her way until she was sat back down by the river, dropping a hand back into the water and swilling the liquid around slightly. She felt her annoyance seep away – not entirely, but a significant amount. Certainly one of the benefits of being a Shadow Warrior. Her other hand rested on the damp moss and surreptitiously drew the water up from the green plant to rest on the palm of her hand, hidden from Stephen.

[yellow]"Listen, Stephen... I was just passing by one time when I needed somewhere to relax, and this room opened up for me. I worked out like you did that this was the Room of Requirement, but just because I found it first doesn't mean I know any more about it,"[/yellow] she explained a little more patiently. [yellow]"Pretty much everything I know is just guesses or conjecture."[/yellow]