Beside the Seaside

Peregrine stood at the edge of the port, holding a small box of pencils (complete with an eraser and a pencil sharpener) and a sketch pad. This really would be fun to draw, as well as a challenge. The sky was fairly clear with an odd spattering of small clouds. There were a good number of boats in the port, although Perez suspected this would change when their owners saw the weather.

He decided to walk along the harbour until he found a view he really wanted to draw. He wanted one which would be challenging, yes, but mostly he wanted new pictures for his dorm room, which meant a view that would look good even if he drew it badly.

It had been too cold for Perez to want to come out anywhere just for sketching in months. However, now the weather was turning brighter this was a brilliant opportunity.

Looking around the harbour, he nearly walked into a young woman, and had to carefully reconstruct his balance. During this, his shoelaces came loose, and he tripped over them a few steps later. He really was impressive sometimes. He released thee grip on his right hand so that he could catch his weight before he could taste concrete. His pencils dropped from his hand, and landed perilously close to the harbour edge. He scooped them up before he lost them.

He looked up across the harbour and grinned. This was beautiful. He couldn't deny this was probably the best spot in the harbour. He could see the other side of the bay and where it cut into ocean, with a few boats in front. Sun sparkled on the waves. It really would be a challenge, but if this worked it would be amazing. Perez didn't bother standing up again. Instead he swung his weight around so that his legs were hanging off over the water. He shuffled his weight to make sure he was comfortable on the stones and that he wouldn't have to be leaning around to get his view. He put his pencil box next to him, opened up his sketch pad to the next clean sheet ad pulled out a 2H pencil. He took his glasses out of his hoodie pocket and pushed them up his nose before he started to draw, eyes fixated across the water.

( WORDS ) 488 ( TAGGED ) @peregrine  ( MUSE ) here As per usual for the young woman, she was carrying her lace parasol to shield her bright, pink eyes and unbelievably pale skin as she wandered through the port, left to be the sun's victim out in the open. However, with her sunscreen applied and other skin care products adorning her sallow skin, she knew that she would be adequately protected against the sun's harmful rays.. For a short while, at least. Despite the spring-like weather, Felicity was able to adorn herself in a pair of black, skinny jeans that enclosed around her lanky limbs in a complementary manner, along with a flowing, light-blue blouse that loosely draped itself over her thin frame. Her height was raised a couple of inches by a pair of open-toed, white sandals, something that she found necessary for her short stature. To finish off her look, she permitted her nearly-white hair to hang at the bottom of her ribcage in crimped strands, though she kept the waves neatened and even. A pair of black glasses were perched on the bridge of her nose, an element that appeared to accentuate her angular features, as she walked and read The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, one of her favorite reads, even if it wasn't incredibly difficult. Just as she was finishing up the Tell Tale Heart for what seemed to be the millionth time, she watched as a boy narrowly missed colliding into her, swerving off to the side just in time as she peered over her book in interest. He seemed to be a couple of years younger than her, and had consequently dropped his writing utensil while avoiding the collision. Felicity had to blink her mascara-covered eyelashes a couple of times to register just what exactly had occurred, but found herself smirking despite herself. This was an opportunity she shouldn't waste. After carefully removing her reading glasses, the young woman approached the smaller boy from behind, peering over his shoulder in a rather intrusive manner. And, oh, she was very aware of her position. "I would've been really brassed off if you knocked into me back there," she commented idly, fixating her pinkish eyes upon the boy in an almost condescending manner, "You've got to have a butchers at where you are before zoning off like that." Felicity was being incredibly hypocritical, seeing that she'd been multitasking and both reading and strolling, but this didn't seem to affect the nature of her words. Instead, it seemed to fuel her in some sort of twisted manner, giving her a further reason to see why others would automatically dislike her. Why work at trying to impress people if they were destined to hate her from the start? Her eyes surveyed his rapidly developing drawing as well, and she lofted a brow as she speculated it. Of course, her pride wouldn't permit her to actually give him praise for his artistic ability, but she could admire it internally, perhaps permit a pang of envy here or there as well. It seemed to reflect the beauty of the scenery fairly well for an amateur artist, especially since he must've been attending Foresta if he was a youth on this island. While lost in thought, she awaited the moment that their eyes would interlock, wondering what type of reaction he would have on her odd appearance and the presence of her parasol, and, as devious as it seemed, considered giving him a slight jolt in the head once he dared to make eye contact. Second chances they don't ever matter

MADE BY VEL OF GS

Perez’ had drawn the lie of the land, and had sketched out the shape of the street on the other side of the port, complete with a handful of boats, all in rough. Perez preferred to draw the hardest part of his sketches accurately first, which meant that he was now working on the water. He had progressed onto drawing the waves, starting with a large expanse of slightly variant greyscale water and using his eraser to highlight the sun shining on the water. It was at this point that he was approached.

Peregrine jolted, startled at the voice coming from behind him. His left hand shook, and a hairline penetrated the hull of a boat on his drawing. Given his powers were pretty much tailor-made for sneaking up on people, he was unused to the tables being turned. He looked up over his right shoulder, somewhat annoyed. Seeing how close she was, he shuffled along the harbour a few inches, preferring to have a small amount of personal space.

He slid his glasses up his nose with the back of his right thumb as he looked up, not meeting her eyes because of his glasses’ frames. ”And the reason for confronting me is not at all to do with being annoyed.” Perez drummed his pencil end against the sketch pad in a quick rotation, leaving a small patch of repeated dents in the page. ”So sayeth the girl with her nose glued in a book.”

He put the sketch pad down on the harbour edge next to him, placing his equipment atop, checking his pencils wouldn’t run off into the water before he looked up again, actually noting the appearance of the lady behind him. His first reaction was that she was a vampire, given her pinkish eyes and pale complexion- but what would a vampire be doing out in the sun still alive? Despite his surprise at seeing her, and his mild irritation at her interruption and clear invasion of his personal space, some part of his mind registered that she really was quite pretty, even around her clear health issues. He pushed this thought out of his head.

Either she was some kind of albino or she just had some very weird side effects of her Gifts. He decided to go with the first option. He resisted the urge to make a joke on the matter, and this was quite obvious from his facial expression, which he was fighting to keep straight.

Given the probably albinism, Perez guessed that the parasol was related to that. Again, he thought the urge to say that the only people he’d seen with brollies in summer were all grandmas, or characters in Victorian documentaries. He knew that there was a limit on how far you could take a joke before people got offended, and figured it was a long way before mocking health disorders. In any case he could save those until later.

Peregrine guessed that the girl went to the school, given how old she looked. However he knew pretty quickly he would have noticed her walking around he guessed that she must be new.

”Well, it’s nice to meet another Brit.” Peregrine was actually surprised at the vocabulary the girl had used. Having grown up in London, he thought he had a pretty good grip on the general direction of British slang, but he’d only ever heard his mother say “brassed off” before.

( WORDS ) 364 ( TAGGED ) @peregrine  ( MUSE ) here All at once, Felicity felt herself grow all the more agitated with the insolent boy as he struggled to keep his features stony out of respect. Was she that amusing-looking that people had to force down a bout of laughter? "I'm not a vampire," she hissed, having assumed that this was his conclusion based off of nothing but her appearance. She'd completely disregarded his initial statement, she realized, and recalled back in her mind just what exactly he'd uttered. On a normal occasion, Felicity would've been deterred from engaging in socialization, but seeing that she was so new to this school, she figured that she should at least get a feel for what the student body was like as a whole through experimentation. So far, she wasn't pleased with the results, but she didn't attend Foresta to make friends. "I've never succeeded in bumping into someone while reading, it's only natural that one would look up and multitask to avoid that," she snapped in reply, finding her patience wearing thin around the boy. Who on earth did he think he was? And what was with this bizarre, olde English method of speaking with 'sayeth'? Nonetheless, she chose to bite back any insults surrounding his way of speech as he commented about her being of British heritage. "I cannot say that the sentiment is reciprocated," Felicity responded with an agitated sigh, as if she regretted talking to the boy in the first place. This was precisely the reason why she refrained from too much social interaction, it always caused her to feel incredibly fatigued and vexed without any gain. The young woman positioned herself beside him at a respectable, if not standoffish distance, though chose not to seat herself down just yet. Her bright, pinkish eyes flickered towards him a few times as she spoke, "You attend Foresta Academy, correct? What is your ability?" If nothing else, she could at least learn about what types of powers the students exhibited, just to receive one positive element to this interaction. She completely cast aside the fact that she'd been cross and unreasonable with him, and the question was stated in a rather blunt manner as well. Second chances they don't ever matter

MADE BY VEL OF GS

Perez frowned. How had she known he was thinking that? He guessed it must have been visible from his face- a psychic would have far more interesting people’s minds to read than his own. He was probably a lot easier to read than he thought- either that or this lady got that reaction a lot. The latter option made him feel a little guilty.

”I’m guessing someone doesn’t understand sarcasm then. Well, I’m sorry.” Perez wondered how someone raised in Britain seemed to have so little comprehension of sarcasm. Either she had not lived there long or some areas had very different senses of humour. ”I wasn’t laughing at you.” It’s true he hadn’t been. He never meant a joke to be insulting, and if she’d taken it that way, that certainly was not his intention. He was going to have to tread carefully if she didn’t understand his sense of humour.

His own joke about her speaking style didn’t seem to have the effect he had intended either. It seemed his only entirely serious statement had been the only one taken sarcastically. That in itself was quite funny to the red-haired boy. However he did feel slightly hurt at the sigh. He could have taken it at a joke if she hadn’t sighed.

Perez was glad when she repositioned herself. He really would rather not have a girl leaning right over his shoulder, or anyone for that matter.

”Correct.” The question made him leap to the assumption that she went to foresta too. Perez was quite tempted to just show her his Gifts. However, from here his phasing would force him into the water, and he would rather not be sitting here in wet clothes, and the very fact they were talking removed the use of his stealthing. ”I can phase through things and I can stealth walk.” Trying to demonstrate, he picked his pencil up off his sketch pad, concentrated on phasing his right hand, and dropped the pencil straight through his palm and back onto the sketch pad, where it nearly rolled off, fortunately towards land. He knew that made him look really bad but it was at least some demonstration. ”Stealthing is a little harder to show, but basically, people can’t tell I’m somewhere if I don’t want them to.”

He looked up into the girl’s eyes again. ”So what can you do, then?” It was a safe assumption that she would not assume he had Gifts unless she did too.

( WORDS ) 451 ( TAGGED ) @peregrine  ( MUSE ) here The apology from the other student should've been enough to satisfy Felicity, but she wasn't in the best of moods anymore, and it proved to be difficult to accept. Sure, he didn't have an in-depth background of how she was perceived by others, but anyone remotely intelligent would be able to infer that perhaps she was often considered to be a vampire. And, the fact that he said he wasn't laughing at her was exceedingly irritating. Just what did he take her for, some kind of neanderthal? Still, she simply permitted a dark smirk to grace her porcelain-like features and shook her head briefly, not wishing to engage in an argument over something incredibly trivial. If she was going to verbally duel him, it would be a matter far more important than that, for it would be a more useful method to expelling her energy, and she certainly had to be critical when knowing where to use it. Anyone could comprehend sarcasm, she just wasn't in the mood to tolerate it. It was then that the young man began to demonstrate just how his powers worked. Based off of what he said, he could disassemble his physical matter so that objects could pass through it, or he could pass through objects, and this was visually explained when he permitted a pencil to fall through his hand. She lofted a brow in slight intrigue, wanting nothing more than to covet the power for her own simply to do some 'much-needed' research on it, but alas, she was forced to observe it from a distance. "I'm not daft, I can catch your drift," she responded in a snappy tone, though combated by her desire for information, she attempted to cover up her aggravation as best as she could, "But, ah.. That must be quite a useful tool to use.." The young woman carefully adjusted her parasol to cover up a splotch of sunlight that had splashed upon her ankle, seeming to be incredibly acute to any heat sources. If she could get a feel for most student's abilities, it could both expand her knowledge and give her an idea as to how to approach, avoid or fight them if need be. It wasn't until the younger boy asked for her own ability that her pale, pinkish eyes connected with his. "I can conjure psionic blasts with my mind," she replied in a matter-of-fact tone, peering about as she continued, "Though, if I display it, I fear that someone will either grow irritated or will have me punished for inflicting pain on another." She then stared the other student directly in the eyes once more, "I'm sure you wouldn't want a demonstration, would you?" Second chances they don't ever matter

MADE BY VEL OF GS

Perez noted how her features changed as she thought. He figured he may as well cover his tracks in case she got annoyed or angry. ”I know what it looks like; I’m sorry if you’re offended; I know I’m being immature.” That covered everything, right? It wasn’t really his fault if his brain leapt to weird conclusions, but it was his fault if he said them out loud. He knew it looked really bad but he would come off a lot worse if he said what he had thought. ”I really am sorry.”

That smirk was fairly ominous. He looked down and took this as an opportunity to remove his glasses and to place them back into his pocket. Perez still felt like he must have really offended her, and he knew full well that he was doing a bad job hiding his guilty look.

Peregrine smiled at the girl’s first snappy comment. Given she seemed to be new here, it wasn’t a massive leap to assume she only had vague ideas of what powers did. ”If “useful” includes having to hold your breath and have serious special awareness.” Perez was extremely curious as to why the girl had said that. Perez thought it sounded as though she were just scoping out how powerful he was. That sounded a little manipulative, but if she had only just got here, Perez assumed this was just her getting to grips with her new situation.

Perez couldn’t help seeing the irony in this girl worrying about other people getting irritated. He couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to punish everyone here if they just messed up slightly with their powers. With several hundred people on the island with Gifts, to regulate all of that would be ridiculous; really getting punished was unlikely. However, he wasn’t going to point this out to her. ”I guess that depends. Is this demonstration aimed at me?” Perez was aware his phasing probably would be unable to help him if she chose to do that. His pain threshold certainly was unimpressive and, from the way she spoke, that did not sound comfortable. ”I’d really rather not get blasted. I mean, it’s a totally normal thing to come out to a port and look to get psionically blasted.”

It was now that Perez realized that he didn’t know the girl’s name. He knew this was bad timing, but he would rather know sooner than later. ”I’m Perez, short for Peregrine.”

( WORDS ) 764 ( TAGGED ) @peregrine  ( MUSE ) here The boy's incessant apologies were becoming more annoying than actually conveying much genuine emotion to Felicity, as heartless as that seemed, and the young woman shifted her position uncomfortably. She was accustomed to the fervent apologies sputtering from her parents' mouths when they feared for their own safety, but she seldom came across someone who actually used the word 'sorry' in the meaningful context it was meant to be used. Her mouth was drawn into a thin line briefly, before speaking in a grumbling tone, "Belt up, I get it already.." Fel's naturally snappy attitude hadn't diminished in the least, even when someone was trying to show her some sort of kindness or courtesy, but reciprocating the emotion was her biggest problem. Her eyes flickered towards him at his remark. For some reason, it befuddled her. Did this mean that he had to hold his breath in order for his ability to remain functional? Or was he referencing something else entirely? Nonetheless, she chose to ponder this fact at a later time, and gave a noncommittal shrug in response to him. For now, she wanted to test the waters and see just how much information she would be able to indirectly squeeze out of her peer. Even if she made the slightest mistake, that could make the difference between receiving some important information and not even gathering the hint of its existence. Sure, she was delving a bit too deeply into something relatively simple, but being too analytic of a situation often made sure that every trivial detail was preserved. The young woman was wrenched from her deep thoughts as yet another smirk twisted up the corners of her mouth into an almost sinister grin, though it lacked true malice. "Not necessarily," she answered in a rather nonchalant tone, "Though, my ability doesn't permit me to be as discreet as you, so the culprit would be blatantly obvious." It was amusing that this student thought that she could actually create some sort of physical combustion through a psionic blast, and a calculative chuckle slipped between her parted lips, "I'm afraid that's not how it works." She wasn't going to outwardly attack him now, but she was growing more eager to at least display what she was capable of doing. Oddly enough, the young man seemed to have introduced himself to her. The previous misconception that he automatically hated her seemed to have dissolved all within that moment, and with this sudden straying from how she was normally perceived, Felicity felt a bout of discomfort course through her. People were supposed to despise that smartass with the obnoxious British slang, that's how it was to work. "Charmed," she answered in a far more detached and borderline icy voice in an attempt to keep her cool composure, "I'm Felicity, and I'd prefer to be called just that. It's a.. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." She then seemed to deviate away from the idle chat as quickly as she could, instead veering back towards abilities so that she could successfully draw some sort of hypothesis, "I think you've gathered the wrong idea about psionic--" The young woman paused as she watched a man, adorned in ragged attire, attempt to reach forwards with a grimy hand to grasp her book that hung ever so slightly over the edge of her handbag. Almost immediately, her expression darkened, and she connected her bright, pinkish eyes with the dark, frightened ones of the presumably homeless individual. She inhaled and exhaled slowly, and within that instant, let her mind empty itself of all thought. A blank slate was exactly what she strove for, and in these small, brief moments, she was capable of clearing out a good portion of her mind's activity, but not its energy. Once she'd achieved this, she breathed out through her nose, releasing the stored up mental energy as her eyes glowed eerily. A pink, somewhat purple type of light fanned out from the center of the girl's pale forehead, and the silent blast fanned outwards to collide with the skull of the man before her. He cringed and retreated backwards, recoiling his hand that had tried to grasp the book and placing it on his head as he shuffled away from the supernatural girl. When Felicity turned back to face Peregrine, her light scarlet eyes still remained luminescent, contributing to her vampiric appearance. "Hopefully that serves as a demonstration," she said, as though the conversation had never been interrupted, "The pain I cause is mental, not physical, so it's not like I can bloody blow someone up." Second chances they don't ever matter

MADE BY VEL OF GS

Perez shut up his apologies as the girl said to, mostly from surprise. Then he shrugged. Most people would just accept it rather than snapping. She probably had a lot of people with weird reactions though, and therefore probably a lot apologizing to her. It probably got annoying after a while. Still, he was trying to be friendly, and that was a bit excessive.

Perez grinned. “Culprit” was a rather strong term for what he used it for. ”Yeah, but subtlety takes priority over power, right?” He did appreciate his powers and their subtlety; they were certainly helpful on a bullied teenager; but here they had far less use, and he had always wanted something with a little more showy even if it were only used for party tricks. ”I guess that’s true.”

He certainly did not like how the girl smiled there. It seemed as though she enjoyed the idea of it causing pain. Perez was again surprised by the girl’s intuition. Girls really were better at that, weren't they? ”So how does it work, then?”

Perez could probably cope with her better than most because he understood her background better than most. Although they were clearly from different regions, as he could tell by her Manc, or at least, Northern, accent. Her particular wording was certainly different, but she definitely didn't come across to him as using slang.

Felicity’s tone of voice was distinctly chilly, and Perez felt like the surface he was metaphorically walking on was equally icy. Perez couldn't help seeing the irony in her name. Didn't “Felicity” mean joyful? That just did not seem to fit. Perez felt she sounded a bit sarcastic at her next statement, however, and it seemed to him that his constant sarcasm had magically become contagious. ”And it’s good to meet you too.”

The approaching man came as a total surprise to the boy. He was surprised by his appearance, both physical and position-wise; this man seemed to be dressed like the kids playing street urchins in school plays of Oliver; Perez would have thought of it comically had the grime and smell not been so apparent. Perez’ reactions were not the fastest, and Felicity had already taken action before he picked up his pencil with the intention of using phasing to stick it into the man somehow- he hadn't really thought it through. Perez’ eyes widened as Felicity used her psionics on the passer-by. ”Well, that was called for.” He hoped his hard glare made his opinions obvious. It was good to hear that it wasn't going to cause him serious damage, but still, the man’s reaction showed it was still plenty uncomfortable.

He couldn't help noticing the amount of concentration she seemed to need to control her abilities. That sure looked a lot more than he needed. She probably had had her powers for a much shorter time than him, as he barely needed to think to start his powers now.

His fist clenched around the pencil. ”Can you control how much force you use or does it always hurt your subject like that?” Perez could tell quickly that the man was probably homeless and therefore was just looking for something to pay for food. He felt the wood of the pencil starting to bend around his fingers, and he relaxed his grip.
He was unsure what to expect but he felt that an answer directed at the former suggestion would make him feel a lot worse.

( WORDS ) 556 ( TAGGED ) @peregrine  ( MUSE ) here The young woman was quite pleased with herself when she saw the other student had silenced his apologies. Didn't he see what a waste of energy they were? Perhaps one was necessary every now and then, but they lost their meaning and purpose after being used that often. "Yes, it tends to do that," she answered a bit begrudgingly, a bit disappointed that their passive-aggressive feud had been put on hold for the idle chatter. If it wasn't for subtlety, then surely power would have little to no purpose. Sure, someone could be immensely mighty, but if they didn't have enough finesse, their cover could be blown in an instant, rendering all of that raw power futile. As he inquired how it worked, she shrugged, offering as 'basic' of an explanation as she possibly could, "Well, if my mind is void of most personal thoughts and other, needless mental activity, then I'm able to channel a certain amount of energy into a psionic blast. It doesn't affect one physically, but you'd feel it nonetheless." She was intending to keep it vague, in case she was forced to use it in an undesirable situation. If he knew exactly what she could do so soon, she might be screwing herself over for something vital in the future. But, it seldom mattered to her, and if he ended up finding out before she intended, so be it. Her mouth was twisted into a small, detached smirk of sorts as he displayed an obvious displeasure with the way she addressed him. It all went according to plan, for she was driving away even the seemingly kindest of folk. No student would be able to withstand her kind of behavior, and this was perfectly demonstrating this theory. And, after the ordeal concerning the ragged man, Felicity felt a bit drained, though wasn't surprised to see the disapproving glare of Peregrine out of the corner of her eye. She nodded, managing a smug grin as victory dripped from her tone, "Yes, I believe it was. I wouldn't want one of my favorite novels stolen so easily." Really, she had plenty of other books to occupy her time, but she was correct in saying that this one in particular was close to her heart. Edgar Allen Poe had this effect on her with his haunting poetry. Truthfully, Felicity had expected the boy to up and leave right then and there, yet he actually continued the conversation. She lofted a quizzical brow in his direction, before returning to her neutral expression. She didn't have as much energy as before to engage in a fiery argument, so she had to settle for something a bit more subdued emotionally: In-depth explanations. "My ability can only bring discomfort to people, no matter how much intensity I inject into it. Even if I were to cock up and somehow direct the energy onto myself, I'd still cause pain," she explained, "I believe the mental waves themselves block something or other that is naturally supposed to flow, and though I'd have to test it on myself to take a thorough and accurate analysis, I don't intend on doing that anytime soon." She'd rather let her ability work through others' reactions rather than her own, seeing that she had no need to intently analyze her power in such a manner. Second chances they don't ever matter

MADE BY VEL OF GS

Perez had mostly stopped because there was no point getting into an argument over something so small. He was glad to see that Felicity seemed unlikely to pick it up again. He shook his head slightly, struggling to understand this girl. Subtlety was useful, that was true, but unless there was some power behind it all the subtlety in the world would be useless, and achieve nothing.

”That sure sounds a lot harder than mine.” It sounded like she needed more concentration than he would need for playing Moto perpetuo at full speed on a trumpet. For Peregrine, starting to use his powers came very easily. ”I just have to think of myself as being slightly out of sync with whatever I’m phasing through. It’s like I shift all my atoms slightly. It’s even easier for the stealthing. I just have to try to pull in shadows to myself.” Compared to this, Felicity’s powers sounded like rocket science. His control certainly wasn’t as good as he was making out, but starting his abilities off was simple.

Why was she smiling at him? She’d just hurt a random stranger far beyond what was necessary. He knew his intentions had still been to cause harm, but the limit of a pencil was way below what Felicity seemed to have caused for the other man.

Perez couldn’t help checking out what book it was for her to get that desperate to protect it. It looked like a poetry book. ”How does poetry produce a novel?” He couldn’t really talk. He hadn’t read a book to the end in years, or at least nothing which was designed for his age. He couldn’t really talk about literature.

He picked up his drawing equipment again, and pulled all of his things onto his lap. He poured far less concentration onto it now, but his drawing began slowly progressing again. His main intention for staying here now was to finish his drawing. He probably looked rude, but this seemed hardly anything next to Felicity.

Perez thought that that sounded far more flawed than Felicity had implied earlier. Hurting yourself if your powers didn’t work correctly was a pretty bad possibility. If it always had to hurt, that must have meant she had hurt herself a lot when she was learning how to use her powers. Even worse, if she still had issues with it now, there was still a chance she could do that to herself. ”I’ve hurt myself plenty a time. I learned a long time ago not to stop stealthing suddenly in front of people or to let objects get stuck while phasing.” His wince said everything about the latter situation, and the jagged shape of his nose spoke for the former.

Perez frowned slightly at the girl’s last sentence. This made little sense to Perez. How could she be so willing to test it out on people around her that she didn’t even now and yet be unwilling to try it on herself. It was true that most people had probably done that, but most people’s powers could do something other than just hurt people. ”You could ask that homeless man.” Perez was aware he probably sounded self-righteous right now, but randomly hurting people like that was too extreme for him not to comment. ”Have you ever tried using it on someone who is using their powers? Might be related somehow.”
 

( WORDS ) 730 ( TAGGED ) @peregrine  ( MUSE ) here As to be expected, Felicity was slightly irritated with the way that Peregrine addressed her abilities. But, at the same time, perhaps he was giving her some sort of praise for being able to concentrate so deeply to conjure her power. Her thoughts were halted as he spoke of his own abilities, though, and the intellectual girl found herself taking a plethora of mental notes before she was even aware she was doing so. So, shifting the atoms enough to permit him to slip through the barrier? It was an interesting tactic, and gaining this information could surely aid her in more ways than one. And, the fact that he had to do something completely different to disguise his body was also intriguing, utilizing the lack of light to absorb it and cover oneself to appear invisible. With this new discovery, she could surely use it to her own advantage. "Interesting," she commented idly as she finished off some of her mental notations. He didn't have to know that she was silently sizing him up, now did he? His next question was actually a bit surprising, and per usual of Felicity Crusoe, she gritted her teeth and readily defended Edgar Allen Poe's works. "It's a collection of his poems and short stories. Perhaps I labeled it incorrectly as a novel, but it's a wonderful piece of literature nonetheless," she replied in a snappy and determined manner. Her scarlet gaze had become a steely glare over the course of a few seconds, and with her irritable nature, this was hardly surprising. And, though she had enough energy to engage in verbal arguments, she was physically fatigued from having used her ability, and just as the student beside her resumed drawing, she seated herself beside him, though kept a considerable amount of distance between them. She hardly liked him, so why would she suggest that she actually enjoyed being around him by sitting close to him? It was evident in the way that he addressed her that the feelings were reciprocated, and oddly enough, it gave the albino student an eerie sense of accomplishment. Another person successfully fended off. Suddenly, though, the young woman listened as new information spewed from the boy's lips. He really just let her on some sort of weakness with his power? That was just fine by her. So, if he was interrupted while trying to conceal his body with shadows or halted the process of phasing through an object, he was injured or harmed.. No, Felicity wasn't planning on intentionally hurting him, but if need be, she knew just how to deal indirect damage to the young man. She chose not to tell of her own experiences with being harmed, but nodded distractedly. Her thoughts were spinning with thousands of thoughts all at once, but even through this chaotic mess, she was able to respond logically, "If you paused while in the process of trying to draw shadows into yourself, what would the effect be?" If she was going to continue utilizing this encounter to the best of her ability, then she had to at least ask him this. Peregrine's obviously annoyed statement about asking the homeless man how he fared caused Fel to draw her lips in to a taut, tight line. She didn't want him to know that he was rubbing her the wrong way, so she responded icily, "I think I'll manage without the data." Oh, he was treading on thin ice now, though he seemed to unintentionally compensate for this by asking her a rather intriguing question. Had she ever used her ability on someone with powers? The thought of doing that sparked both apprehension and wonder in her chest, for if she was to come to that, it would most likely mean that she'd have to engage in battle with someone at this school. Internally, she grinned wryly, for the thought of giving Braedyn a small jolt of pain thrilled her. Her external appearance was indifferent, though, and she ventured to speak, "No, I haven't, though I don't think it'd make much of a difference. We're still all relatively human on the inside, with similar nervous systems and such, right? I couldn't see anyone being so inhuman that they didn't have the capacity to hold a human-like mind and insides.. Else, why would they be permitted into Foresta in the first place?" Second chances they don't ever matter

MADE BY VEL OF GS

Perez wanted to laugh when Felicity stated her opinions. He hardly thought he was the most interesting student here, not by a long way. Perez knew he was no master of his powers, but after ten years of practice, starting and stopping them came easily.

Perez was surprised by Felicity’s outburst. Perez really thought that she just needed to chill; he hadn’t done anything that really deserved her to be angry and yet she seemed to be outraged at him. However he didn’t say this. ”And me saying it’s not a novel means I think it’s bad?” Perez was actually somewhat surprised that she seemed to have jumped to the right conclusion. He had never understood poetry, or liked it overly, but he withheld this statement, bearing in mind her prior reaction. Maybe if she figured it being “not a novel” was an insult, she might blast him if he said he was disappreciative.

Perez really didn’t think he had let slip any sort of weakness. He had got his powers while he was still in reception class, and at five years of age, most people make dumb mistakes. Additionally, everyone had made a dumb mistake with their powers at some point; it was part of the learning curve. You just made more, and often dumber, errors when you start learning at the age of five.

Perez looked up into the girl’s eyes at the question. ”Weird you should ask.” He couldn’t remember having tried that at any point, although now it seemed like a really obvious thing to have done. ”I’m not sure. To me it mostly feels like a switch; either on or off; so it’s quite hard to just stop it in the middle. I guess it would just make my stealthing a lot weaker; I’d probably still be quite noticeable to most people.”

The ice in Felicity’s tone was enough to tell Perez that he had had some effect on the girl, even if it was small. He hadn’t expected a good response to that, but he had only been trying to stop her using her powers on random strangers.

Perez shook his head. ”No, I meant, if there’s some trigger in your brain that causes your Gifts, then if you push that forward, wouldn’t it affect the triggers in other people’s brains?” He knew he was assuming that everyone’s powers worked in the same way, but he could at least assume that a few of them worked like this. He was no expert on how his abilities actually worked, or on how any of them did, but this sounded pretty plausible to him. ”Maybe it could even stop their abiltities mid flow or something…” Perez knew this would be impossible to control, even if it did work like this. ”I guess we’d be permitted because we’re not human, and so we couldn’t fit in anywhere else.” Honestly, Perez was unsure whether any of the students were actually human or not. Sure, they looked it, and anatomically they were similar, but a donkey and a horse look similar on the surface and they’re not the same species by a long shot. ”Most mammals look all the same to me on the inside. In theory we could be a completely different species and no one would be able to tell from our bodies. And, if you hold by evolution, given we’re a branch off of humanity, of course we’ll function similarly, even if we’re not the same species any longer. If you think about it most animals function similarly anyway, even the really far separated ones.” The fact he was no science expert was probably clear from his voice, if not the confused knitting of his brows.

The boy genuinely could not understand his companion. He thought he had yet to do anything that could justly result in this much irritation. His confusion was indubitably clear on his face. Why was she so annoyed at him? He knew his sarcasm probably was unhelpful, but given he meant everything in jest, he had never seen a person react like this before. It was quite obvious that he was just checking whether he’d be likely to encounter her again with his next response. ”I’m guessing you’re not in Emerald or Ruby, then.”

( WORDS ) 893 ( TAGGED ) @peregrine  ( MUSE ) here Honestly, the false idiocy that this boy seemed to be displaying was really irking Felicity now. What did he mean by saying that it was a novel wasn't supposed to be offensive? How bloody stupid did he think she was? Clenching her jaw, the young woman pinched the bridge of her nose in obvious vexation and shook her head, grumbling, "If you can't see it now, I can't imagine you seeing it anytime soon, we have curfew at midnight." Even for her, that was a fairly sharp insult from something so trivial, but her patience was wearing thin and she was growing tired of this boy's company. At times, she really did get sick of arguing with people that were just disagreeable in her mind. Finally, it seemed as though they were returning to the more factual point of the conversation, and it was probably the only positive thing to be gained from this encounter. From what he said, it wasn't a gradual process where one had to push through it and expel all of their energy into the area between phasing, no, it simply took its own course without manual labor. This was very intriguing, seeing how she didn't have the liberty to use a switch-like element to simply activate her ability. Perhaps that preserved his energy, and if she could try and unlock a similar device in her own system, it might increase her efficiency with psionic blasts. She nodded, gazing into the ground with her hauntingly scarlet irises for a few moments as she finished up revising a few of her mental notes. "I suppose that gives you more energy to use up when you don't have to focus it in on the process of changing itself," she concluded, peering up at the boy once again and adjusting her parasol so that it remained securely over her body. After all of these tedious years of maintaining her skin's health, she wasn't about to stop now and put her life in jeopardy. It was at this point that Perez took a rather... Unique approach to her abilities. If his theory was correct, then everyone had similar types of Gifts that permitted this frontal 'trigger' to be affected in the same ways. Giving him a skeptical look, the girl exhaled a frustrated sigh. What type of logic was he even using? Fel wasn't one to back away from intelligent conversation, but speaking to someone who confused their own theories simply wasn't what she was after. "I don't believe I have the capability to pause someone's 'flow' in their power," she responded in a somewhat bewildered tone, trying to clarify her point as best as she could, "By saying that, you're claiming that most people have a specific rhythm or flow that their ability adheres to, which isn't necessarily true. Sometimes other factors dictate the movement of powers, so I'd have to gain knowledge of each individual's weaknesses and processes to even attempt something like that. Psionic blasts pertain more to simply a brain's flow, and whether or not they're Gifted doesn't affect this." She finished her statement on a somewhat snappy tone, but the heat from the day was certainly contributing to her agitation at this point. Her gaze hardened exponentially as Peregrine spoke of 'fitting in', though, and she found her lips speaking a quick retort before she was even aware it was happening, "Perhaps you wouldn't fit in, but I only came here to get a better hold on my abilities and nothing more. I could do a cracking job in the real world." After hearing her parents' bitter words about how their daughter had "turned against them" and had "mercilessly attacked them without reason", she was determined to prove that she could do incredibly well without their assistance. This, unfortunately, was placed into the young woman's response, even if Perez wasn't purposefully trying to instigate another argument. He proceeded to babble on to her about how mammals appeared similar to one another, and the girl rolled her eyes with a huff. "Once you take biology," she began shortly, "You'll learn that the embryology between people and even fish bear a semblance to one another, but through development, there are plenty of stark differences between them. And if you see all mammals as mirror images of one another on the inside, then you need to look a bit harder." If he hadn't made that remark about fitting in, perhaps the girl would've felt a bit more obliged to have an intelligent debate about the topic. "Sapphire to be precise," she answered him tersely, rubbing her temples for a brief moment, before standing up in a fluid motion. This was too much, especially now that her parents had entered her mind from his words... Indirectly, that is. Casting him a short glare, Felicity said in a rather exasperated tone, "The sun's far too hot today, so I think I'll be taking refuge inside. Perhaps we'll encounter one another again." The last part of her sentence was dry and without any sense of pleasant emotion behind it, and it certainly seemed as though she did not want to see him again. Not someone as gormless as him. Turning quickly with her heeled shoes clicking against the ground, she swiftly set off in the opposite direction, a sour expression etched onto her face. (OOC: I'm so sorry about the lateness of this post!! I was kind of losing muse, so I hope you don't mind if I ended it here.) Second chances they don't ever matter

MADE BY VEL OF GS

”I don’t see how not being a novel makes something bad. I like Gershwin’s music and they are not novels. I’m just pretty sure that Novels use prose, which, in case you hadn’t noticed, isn’t poetry.” Was she really that arrogant? A minor correction was never an insult in Perez’ book. If anything it was a compliment because it meant people liked you enough to care whether you made yourself look like an idiot.

”You could say that.” He really was not going to go into the details of how he needed a ton of energy to actually pass through anything of note. He figured it was for the best that turning the phasing on, so to speak, was so easy because otherwise he wouldn’t have enough energy left to actually do anything with it.

”Look, I don’t have your Gift, so how am I meant to know how it works? I’m not even sure exactly how mine functions.” Why was she getting so snappy at him? If she had at least tried to explain how it worked in a way he could understand- the last part being the main challenge- then maybe that would make sense.

Perez knew he was no expert on science, rather the opposite in fact, but from what he could understand of evolution he knew that the next stage always looked really similar to the previous one so you could never tell exactly when the species split. Something like that, anyway. ”Yeah, well, as far as I’m aware most animals have hearts, lungs and kidneys. Did I miss your memo about them not?” He expected no reply, and the stiffening of his jaw was a clear indication of that.

He was glad to hear that the girl was in a different dorm to him. He knew it was immature to avoid people because you had an argument with them (although normally “mature” was not the word used to describe him) but he knew he could not cope with having to see her every day.

Perez had no struggle in working out what the girl meant behind her tone. Honestly, given the way she handled herself, he rather hoped that they didn’t meet again too.

He followed her with his eyes for a second before turning back to his drawing. The sooner he could forget about this, the happier he would be. He paused his pencil’s scratchings. Looking at his sketch pad he realized that it would now be a reminder. Gritting his teeth in annoyance, he tore the sheet out, crunched it up, and threw it into the water. He regretted this action near instantly.



(OoC: yeah, it’s completely fine to end up there. I’m pretty sure Perez would have walked off soon too. I was trying to just write a half-post finish and this happened XD)