It was watching her. Or at least, that’s how Elizabeth felt. I’m just imagining things, that’s all. Liz attempted dismissing the feeling. The nagging, persistent feeling that something was there with her, watching everything she did, including her herself. But that was impossible, because she was inside the mind of an animal. She was pretty sure nobody had seen her possess the American crow she was co-inhabiting, nor was she aware of any telepaths that could peak into the thoughts of an animal. And she doubted she’d be able to tell if someone was poking around in her brain. Unless that really is what telepathy feels like.

Suddenly paranoid, Eliza-Crow dipped a wing and began spiraling down toward the ground. As much fun as the flying was, she didn’t want anybody psychic-stalking her as she did her own thing. Back off! she thought, hoping the mental creeper would read her thought and retreat from her mind. She pulled up a memory in the crows mind as well, hoping the sight of a perspective-skewed, bloodthirsty cat would shock the psychic from the bird’s mind. She quickly replaced the memory with one of a freshly dead carcass of a rabbit lying just off the side of the road. The quick spike of fear in the bird diminished mostly.

But the presence didn’t go away. I give up! Eliza-Crow landed on a branch in the yard, a good vantage point for trying to find their stalker. Using the corvid’s keen eyesight, Liz scrutinized the faces of each person outside at the moment. A green-haired girl seemed to be staring at her, but then Liz recognized the girl and remembered that she was blind. Nobody else seemed to be looking at her. Next she checked to see how many of them appeared to be concentrating on something. If telepathy was anything like her empathy, than it would require some type of concentration to spy on her, especially from way up in the air.

Still nothing, although she did see some sparrows and bugs that looked particularly tasty to the crow. But they didn’t look appetizing to Liz, so she decided to remain on her perch. And still the feeling of being watched loomed.

OOC: Color = cawing crow speach

Raven had only been at the Mansion for a day and all ready there were many things to love. Primary among those things was the fact that she had a nice warm roof over her head and access to the kitchen any time she wanted. Plus, there was no rent that needed to be paid! Oh, it wasn't that she minded paying rent, not really, nor did she particularly mind living outside during the summer time, but still, these were things to be appreciated.

Rent was one of those things that Raven had difficulties with. It wasn't that she intentionally neglected to pay sometimes nor that she didn't have the momeny. Well, more like it wasn't that she didn't have the skills to make the money because sometimes she honestly didn't have. It was just that it took so much effort to remember to pay and it was so boring to continue to go to the same job day after day, month after month. Usually she was good for a consistent month or two, three at the very must, and that was about it. She didn't mean to get distracted, honest. It just sort of happened.

Another posatively lovely thing about the Mansion was the Mansion grounds, filled with greenery, birds, mutants and all sorts of interesting little bits. Currently she was enjoying the warm summer air, outside. She had climbed up a rather sizable tree and sat on a large branch, simply watching the people below her and the birds around her. Blackwing was nearby, currently sitting on the mansion roof eating a half eaten sandwich that one of the students had discarded. Finnaly he had forgiven Raven for locking him in a kennel for the hours it took for the bus to reach New York City.

Raven half dozed off when the sight of a rather odd little crow distracted her back away again. It was sitting in the tree next to her own looking down at the ground in a rather un-crowlike fashion. She wasn't sure that anyone else would notice the odd behaviour, it was the little things like not noticing the shiny penny on the ground and looking around in a far too intent and concentrated fashion. Raven cawed inquisatively at the crow. "Who are you?"

She narrowed her gaze to a student sitting on a bench a hundred yards away. He had dirty blonde hair, a Hollister shirt on, a toned physique, was very fine to look at…Focus, Liz, focus! And not on that guy. Elizabeth swept her avian eyes away from the guy and kept trying to find someone who looked to be a telepath. Which was pretty weird, since telepathy was normally a mental power and not a physically manifesting ability. But the telepathy could’ve had something done with his head, like make it turn white or fall out or something. Or leave a cool scar of a brain or something. Not that she even knew that it was a guy. She just liked the thought of it better.

In fact, Eliza-Crow was so intent on searching the grounds that the voice off to the side surprised her and nearly made her fall. Suddenly, her head turned and Liz was staring at a woman perched in another tree just a little bit away. And she’d spoken to her. Things began clicking in the possessor’s mind. A telepathic intrusion, then the inability to remember turning the crow’s head, and then this woman who’d spoken directly to her, who obviously knew that she wasn’t a real crow. And then Liz realized that the woman hadn’t spoken English. Had she spoken like a bird? The last bit clicked. She was the telepathic stalker!

”That depends. Who are you?” Liz cawed, feeling that it was the most natural thing to do. After all, the woman had initiated the conversation in that language. Shouldn’t she be able to understand it as well? Plus, Liz decided that the woman had an advantage over her since obviously she could read minds and Liz couldn’t. Or at least read animal minds and talk to animals. Either way, she knew more than Liz did. She didn’t really mind being rude in her response because after all, the lady had already invaded her privacy.

It wasn't unusual that the crow had talked back to Raven. What was unusual was the way that the crow had talked back to Raven. Crows didn't really talk in the same way regular people did. They were more disjointed and it always took a little effort to interpret their words. This crow, however, was different. Even ravens, who were, as a whole, smarter than crows, didn't quite talk in such a fluid and coherent manner. This crow conversed very much like a human would converse or, at the very least, as Blackwing would converse.

"You are not a crow", Raven accused the crow, completely ignoring the question that it had posed to her. She cocked her head to the side, trying to get a better view of the funny bird. It certainly looked like a crow and it certainly sounded like a crow. Nor could she detect any funny scents coming from it, although her sense of smell wasn't much better than a regular human's sense of smell. And yet, it most certainly was not merely a crow.

Raven sent a mental image to Blackwing, a flash of a crow and a human coming together to form one being. "Something is funny," she informed him. It only took that much for Blackwing to come down from the roof and land on a branch above her. The giant raven stared at the crow, with the same intensity that Raven was currently staring at it.

"Who or what are you?" Raven wasn't accusing, she was just curious. Because she had never met a crow that was not a crow before.

An internal debate rolled around in Eliza-Crow’s head. How should she respond to the woman? Obviously, she was not a crow, even though she was in the body and mind of a crow. And it was obvious that the woman knew that. It was also obvious that the woman was telepathic of some sort, since she was in one of their minds. But she wasn’t that good of a telepath since she obviously didn’t know who Liz was. So now Liz had an advantage. Even though, she still didn’t know anything about the woman.

And then an eagle landed above the woman, glaring at her along with the woman. She could feel a fear build up in the host’s mind she was using. There, there, we don’t need any of that right now. as she contemplated this new occurrence, Liz barely thought about it and immediately the crow’s fear drowned under feelings of security and comfort. That was one of the only few perks about possessing an animal. It wasn’t nearly as difficult to use empathy on the creature she was in, although ti balanced out by making it harder to affect other animals.

Keeping a careful eye on the black eagle, Eliza-Crow decided to respond. Truthfully. “I’m Elizabeth. NOW STAY OUT OF MY MIND!” she cawed and clacked, raising a small ruckus as she conveyed her anger over the psychic intrusion. Her thoughts were hers alone, and maybe shared by the animal she was inhabiting but that was it. There were laws against trespassing, right? Even if it couldn’t be proved without another psychic.

Her feathers ruffled, both figuratively and physically, Liz matched each glare aimed at her and reflected it back at the woman and the giant bird. Which reminded her of a crow. But that was impossible. Crows didn’t grow that big.

Watching the little crow's reaction to Blackwing's appearance was interesting, to say the least. A natural crow would have fled from the great raven and Raven could see that, for the first moment at least, the crow began to panic. However, after that it seemed to calm down and accept Blackwing's presence. Interesting, very interesting. Was it possible that, perhaps, the crow was actually a mutant? It would make sense in a mutant school like the one she was presently in.

"I'm Raven and I'm not in your mind." Even in crow speech the confusion Raven felt was apparent. The only mind she was in (in a manner of speaking at least) was Blackwing's. She couldn't enter the minds of anything or anyone else if she tried and she actually had tried. In fact,. she had tried both with other crows and ravens and other humans and none of it had amounted to much of anything. But at least she knew the crow was now a mutant.

Blackwing returned the tiny crow's glare with a fierce glare of his own. He wouldn't attack the crow without Raven's say so, but he was very happy to puff up his feathers in order to look as regal and intimidating as possible. At least, Raven was hoping he wouldn't attack the crow without her say so and she sent a mental image of gently petting the crow in pet-like fashion to reinforce the point that the crow was not an enemy. "Maybe someone else is in your mind" Just to be on the safe side, Raven went through her own mind just to make sure that no one was trying to invade her thoughts either and was satisfied when all she found was the comforting presence of Blackwing.

Huh? If this lady isn’t the one in my head, than who is? Eliza-Crow tilted her head in her own bit of confusion. It was weird. She was certain something was in her head, shadowing her every action and thought. It was screwing with her, deleting a second of memory here and there, like making her forget she’d had the crow do something or things of that nature. It was starting to play minor havoc on her. She needed to figure out who was doing this.

Then the woman suggested that a different person was in her head. Liz tilted her glossy black head to the other side. It was exactly what she had been thinking, that it had been somebody else then. That line of thinking made her straighten her head and stare straight into Raven’s golden eyes. “That is exactly what I was thinking. So how do I know you’re telling the truth? After all, you’re the only one around here that climbs trees, has an eagle for a pet, and can speak Crow. Hello! All signs point to you!” Blatant suspicion lined the bird’s voice as Liz spoke. It was obvious. The woman was toying with her. Liz briefly wondered what kind of person enjoyed messing with a person’s mind with their power and then messing with them verbally.

And still the presence lurked around the edges of her consciousness. It was making Liz paranoid of every thought she had and now he was looking directly as her stalker. She soon started thinking a mantra in her mind. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Maybe Raven would take the hint. The feeling of being watched remained, almost as if it was glued to her brain. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. As she mentally chanted, Liz fixed the crow’s eyes on Raven’s and attempted to glare her into getting out of her mind.

For some reason the crow mutant didn't seem to believe Raven. Why would she lie about something like that? Not that she coudln't lie, of course, her entire profession was based on deceit, but what would be the point? Humans always tried to make things so much more complicated than they had to be. Lie only if you have to and when you do make sure to keep things simple and unprovable. So much better if one was able to arrange things so that a lie wasn't necessary.

"Even if I could enter your mind, why would I?" Raven asked. Why did humans always try to look deeper into things than they needed to? The crow mutant was just like every other human in that sense, it seemed. She could do to learn a little something from her crow brethren, just like Raven herself had learned from Blackwing. She sent her feeling of contentment and belonging through the connection back at him and he returned it.

"And Blackwing is not an eagle," Raven was sure to add quickly, as Blackwing sent her a strong feeling of disgruntlement at the comparison. An image flashed through her head of a raven stealing a fish from an eagle. Clearly, while eagle's might be better hunter's than ravens, ravens were far smarter and therefore far superior. Minimum effort possible to get what one wanted. Why hunt something when you could just sneakily take it from something that had all ready gone through all the effort of killing it for you?

”Uh, you’d invade my mind because you could?” Elizabeth retorted, adding in a silent “duh”. Why was the woman messing with her? She had her own bird, even if it wasn’t an eagle. She let the second comment slide, despite the affect it had on her host. The mention of “eagle” startled the crow. Did it actually understand what eagle meant? The possessor assumed so, since it could obviously understand everything Raven was saying, even if it couldn’t quite understand all she was saying. Elizabeth sent a soothing feeling through the onyx avian, calming it down.

Okay, so now what? The woman looked genuinely confuddled at the thought of telepathically entering ElizaCrow’s mind. Even though Liz wasn’t the best at reading people, she was finally willing to give the gold-eyed mutant a chance. But if it wasn’t her, than who else could it be? So far, Liz didn’t know of anyone who could enter a person or animal’s mind. A brilliant thought struck her. Maybe Raven could help her! After all, the tree climber had been able to pick out that Liz wasn’t a real crow. Maybe she could also tell if someone was using telepathy or something. It was worth a shot.

“Well, then allow me to convey my deepest apologies for falsely accusing you in that manner,” ElizaCrow said silkily. ”And I was wondering if you, and your friend there, would mind joining me in locating the person that has infiltrated my mind. You seem to have a knack for picking out things that aren’t quite right.” She addressed the invitation to the black eagle-that-wasn’t-an-eagle as well, even though she doubted it understood crow-speak. Instead, she focused a bit to send a soothing ray of happiness at the beast, as if it were a trade for its help.

Once again humans, even humans currently masquerading as crows, were baffling and confusing. What was the point of doing something just because you could? There had to be a reason for it, otherwise why expend the effort? After all, there were so many things one could do with their time that it seemed pointless to spend that time doing something that was, well, pointless. For example, one could be sitting in a nice tree on a warm summer's day observing all the fascinating people below. Which was, of course, exactly what Raven had been doing before meeting the funny little crow person. She gave the crow a disdainful look, in a way only a disapproving raven could.

Unexpectedly, however, the crow mutant changed tactics completely and began actually complimenting Raven. She gave the bird a distrustful look at first, but compliments were compliments and if there was one thing that worked very well indeed on Raven, it was just that. Had she feathers she would have puffed up her plumage, but since she didn't she contented herself with a rather self satisfied expression instead.

"I accept your apology and because you have obviously seen the error of your ways and accepted reason, I will help you in this task." Of course, Raven didn't have the slightest idea how, exactly, she was supposed to help spot someone who might be using telepathy. Spotting a crow that wasn't a crow was easy, but spotting a human that was reading a crow that was not a crow's mind? Not quite so simple. Still, she sent a telepathic message to Blackwing composing of an image of a human peering into the clear crystal skull of a second human. It was the best image she could come up with to convey the idea of mind reading.

Raven responded with a similar sugar-coating of pleasant-sounding words. Okay. They were a team now. Well, a trio really, if that black bird was possibly able to help. As a measure of goodwill and hope that the bird would cool its expression toward her, Elizabeth decided to conjure up a delicious brew of satisfaction and random happiness, seasoned with a little optimism and a bit of warmth. She projected the bundle of emotions at the, was it a raven? Oh well, whatever it was, it really didn’t matter much. It was a black bird that could possibly help her locate her psychic stalker.

Elizabeth manipulated the crow’s feet, turning the bird around and unconsciously placing them both just a bit nearer to the raven and Raven. Then she turned her attention outwards, forcing all in the school yard to fall beneath her awesome gaze of scrutiny and indiscretion. If anyone out there was reading her mind, then Liz was going to find them. At least, she would if there were any obvious signs of using some form of telepathy. Knowing her luck, she’d probably end up with a pushy-telepath that could carry on three conversations, text someone, listen to music, read a magazine, and invade her mind all at the same time. Without looking out of ordinary at all.

Okay, so if I can’t detect the telepath, maybe I can draw him out. Elizabeth almost would’ve smiled if she’d been human at the time. Elizabeth began swirling together another potent brew, this time consisting of a generic fear mixed with a bit of panic. She spiced it up with some exotic terror she could remember from her various accidents out and about in the city. Then she dumped it out into the emotional states of every animal in her radius, except the raven and the crow she was in. Watching clouds of birds and insects suddenly rise up into the air and cover the area with panicked cries would surely surprise every student outside, unless they were the telepath and already knew what she was planning.

It never even occurred to her that the telepath could’ve also read her intentions and acted surprised, in order to maintain his cover.

Raven looked down at the people going about their business below her. Only a few had taken notice of the fact that there was a woman in the tree cawing in apparent conversation with a crow, a sight that would have been more than just a little unusual anywhere else. But this was the Mansion, a place that just happened to be filled with all sorts of unusual mutants and a girl talking to a crow in that place wasn't so unusual at all, really.

Raven was trying to figure out how she might think to spot a psychic stalker when she felt an unexpected and rather unusual feeling enter Blackwing. He went from being slightly interested in finding the psychic stalker (it wasn't shiny so it couldn't be that interested) to being completely contented and happy. Even Blackwing noticed the change and Raven was able to feel his confusion. It competed with the feelings that whoever it was was trying to send to him. Apparently, the psychic stalker was out to get Raven and Blackwing too!

"You're psychic stalker is now trying to attack me too!" Raven had been half under the impression that the crow girl might have been crazy, but this proved that she wasn't. No matter that the influence had been on Blackwing rather than Raven herself, nor that it was a positive rather than a negative influence. The fact remained that someone was trying to influence her and any influence, even one that appeared benign at first glance, as obviously malignant.

As Elizabeth watched the crowd of people outside, judging their reactions to deem if they were stalking her or not, the presence seemed to recede a bit. Good. That meant the mind creeper was distracted by everything or was trying to avoid her detection. Not today, mister. She scoured various students, watching varying reactions to tons of birds randomly flying around. Many kids were pointing at the birds or just staring, probably thinking it was weird but not too strange. After all, it was a mutant school

But nobody seemed to be in concentration. Liz was about fly the coop and get closer to people (especially to that suspiciously handsome guy sitting on a bench with another couple of equally-suspicious guys) when a series of caws came in from Raven. ”What? she said, going on red alert. That diminishing presence in her mind! That explained why it had left! The guy had tried messing with Raven as well! But now it had returned to her. As she darted her head around, she could feel its presence, as if it were there with her and the raven.

Get outta my head. Get outta my head. Get outta my head. Get outta my head, she mentally chanted again, wishing that the unknown influence would take the stupid hint! She crowed in frustration and pecked at a leaf beside her host’s body, shredding it with her scavenging beak. ”Well, I’m out of ideas. I have no idea how to catch this guy,” Eliza-Crow admitted to Raven and her raven. Her distraction hadn’t really garnered her any suspects so she sent out a calming wave, hoping to catch everything within it, but knowing that several would’ve escaped her range.

Raven had never before experienced anyone other than Blackwing trying to get into her head before and now that she did, she most certainly did not like it, not one bit! Blackwing, of course, was different. He was her familiar, almost her brother. They had been together since she was a child and he was just a chick and she couldn't even imagine her life without him. It was incomprehensible to think of now, how she could have survived most of her childhood bereft of her closest companion. But this nameless someone invading her mind and his was an invasion in privacy of the worst possible kind. No one had given him (or her) permission and she felt violated. If only she could show him what it felt like, then maybe he'd stop! Give him a taste of his own bitter medicine.

Unfortunately Raven had absolutely no idea how to spot her nameless assailant, let alone how to stop him when she did. Peering down at the multitude of students below her, not a one of them seemed to be acting suspicious in any way. Sending a tendril of questioning towards Blackwing, he affirmed that he didn't perceive anyone acting funny either. Well, at least not any more funny than humans normally acted.

"I don't know either," Raven answered in defeat. As per usual her familiar wasn't much help either. She glared down at the crowd below, hoping that her death glare might somehow intimidate the culprit into revealing himself. Unfortunately no one even seemed to notice the odd girl in the tree cawing to the crow beside her.