Gray Matter

- Ayla, stop. - I'm done talking.

This won't stop anything!

Ayla, please.

Let's talk to the others.

Some of them are on our side.

Go. Run! Run! Run!

Hey, hey, hey!

- Patrolling officer in pursuit! Hey!

- Hey! Stop! Stop!

Get back here now! Stop!

Get down on the ground!

Stop!

Ah, Jesus Christ!

It's only gonna be worse for you!

Get down on the ground!

Stop!

Shit!

Show me your hands!

Don't you move. Stay right there!

I'm not gonna say it again. Hands now!

You're making a mistake.

On your knees.

- Backup needed, 1000 block off of Welland.

- Let's go. Come on.

I'm not gonna keep repeating myself.

On the ground now.

I'm not going with you.

- I'm sorry, missy. That's not how this works.

- Actually, that's exactly how this works...

'cause you won't like the alternative.

I promise you that.

Hey! Get back!

You wanna go home tonight?

What is that, a threat?

It's a chance.

Okay.

I'll give you three seconds to get on the ground.

You understand?

Stop, stop!

- If she takes one more step, I'm gonna pull the trigger.

That's what you're thinking, right?

You, not so much.

Now, you are.

- Fuck! - Oh, shit! Hey, hey!

Stop!

Ayla!

What the hell happened?

Seriously?

What?

You started it.

- You--give it to me. I'm hungry.

Not my problem.

Ha-ha!

Good touch sensation.

- Where are you going? - I told you I quit!

- You can't quit! We're a team!

Two peas in a pod! - Ugh!

Those are gonna be black-eyed peas

if you don't get out of my--

What went wrong?

- The cup, I wasn't expecting you to drop it.

- Projections need to be fully formed fictions,

not reactant to the victim.

When you do what we can do, you make victims of people.

- I know. - I know you know.

It just bears repeating.

Did you feel the pull?

- Yeah. I kept it back.

- Good. And let's do it again.

- Are you serious? Why?

- Because you're not fully in control.

These abilities only work if you are in control.

If you let that power take over--

- People can die. I know.

But you don't let me use them outside of the house,

so I think humanity is safe.

My show is on. - I know your show is on.

That's all you're thinking about.

I hate when you do that.

- Then learn how to keep me out.

Again.

- About a dozen downtown businesses

were boarded up Wednesday, and glass-littered sidewalks

following two nights

of protests.

This morning,

there were few people on the streets

as the city school board shut down all schools

in the downtown metro area.

Why are you watching that?

It just makes you mad.

- It's good to know what people are saying.

- They say the same shit every day.

- Someday, they may say something different.

It's our early warning system.

Hiya, hiya, hiya!

I'm Mad Matty, the mattress master!

And I'm here to tell you

that our hybrid memory foam line is on sale!

- Yeah, we're getting early warning signs

about the latest mattress sales.

Time for school.

- You know, maybe I could read something different today?

Something with an actual plot?

Life doesn't have a plot.

- Yeah, that's why books should.

- You're 16. You want fairy tales?

We're not like normal people, Ro.

There's a reason I make you read the books I do.

- "Virtue Ethics and Utilitarianism"?

I know right from wrong.

I don't need a 300-page book to tell me.

The point of that book

is that power has a way of diminishing moral senses.

What does that even mean?

That we have a choice.

And how we use these abilities

when we're out there in the world,

when it's not just me and you...

those choices matter.

If you get stopped, taken, what do you do?

- Mom. - Tell me what.

- I tell them nothing. - What do you show them?

Nothing.

- What happens if they go into your memories?

- I forget. - Forget what?

As much as I can.

How?

I think of anything else?

Use an anchor.

- An anchor memory. Right, yeah.

An anchor memory.

And you fight.

You fight as long and as hard as you can.

And where will I be?

- The bus stop on the 730 line off of Route 80, exit 3.

That's right.

I told you I quit!

- You can't quit! We're a team!

Two peas in a pod! - Ugh!

Those are gonna be black-eyed peas

if you don't get out of my way!

Hey, I'm sorry.

- You talk, but I don't believe it.

I'm gone! - Well, what about--

um, what about my dead cat?

- You never had a cat! - Exactly my point!

So help me fix this before our parents get back!

Why should I?

- Well, because it wasn't exactly my fault!

- You hate what we read, but you love this garbage?

Yup.

It's my only way of seeing regular people.

You seen regular people?

That's not how they are.

- What? You always--

- Well, it's closer than how we live.

- Then why are you surprised? At least I'm consistent!