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1st of October, 2002.
The worst birthday gift the academy had ever received was when the group turned thirteen, and Reginald had announced that they would be receiving permanent brands of their skin that identified them as members of the Umbrella Academy.
In exactly one week, Vanille was going to have lived at the Academy for one year and eight months. Reginald had been strict and vigorous with their training, making sure that they spent every possible hour training in order to catch up to the rest of the group in skill. It was exhausting. They were only just about at the skill level where Reginald had permitted them to join the rest of the Umbrella Academy on their first public appearance at Capital West Bank; though under strict instructions that they were only there to assist the others and not to directly engage themselves.
Vanille went first. They were the most calm about it and Reginald believed that this would allow the others to fall in line. Vanille was not calm about it. They couldn't decide if they were angry or fearful; anxious or frustrated. They had a plan, at least.
They couldn't feel a thing. The first sense that Reginald had made them focus on tapping into was the ability to feel pain. He hoped it would allow the Umbrella Academy to keep fighting without being distracted by such sensations; a respite with no cure, some sort of illusionary medic.
Vanille sat straight-faced and calm in the chair and didn't look at the needle piercing their skin. They were not afraid, but they disliked watching their skin be branded with a tattoo, a permanent reminder of their new legal guardian. They did not flinch once. They didn't even know it was over until Grace appeared and touched them fleetingly. The tattoo artist had told them, though Vanille had unfortunately zoned out and with the loss of their attention they had also lost most of their hearing. Grace had had to step forward and ghost her fingers on their shoulder, giving them a visual indication to get up. Vanille snapped back in, sounds flooding their ears and got up with a nod. They felt a static burst on their shoulder and weren't sure why, having not felt anything, let alone Grace's brief tapping.
"How was it?" asked Allison, her voice lacking its normal liveliness. "Did it hurt?"
Vanille shrugged their shoulders, "I didn't really feel anything."
Oddly enough, the group found this rather soothing, most of them having forgotten about Vanille's abilities.
Vanille moved to lean against one of the cold stone pillars in the entrance hall where this bizarre event was taking place and watched as Klaus sat shakingly in the chair.
Five moved to lean on the same pillar and muttered lowly, "Powers?"
