[HEART] Don't you!

GETTING… SOMEWHERE? MAYBE?

As Adrian seated and greeted himself, the girl absently looked away for a brief moment as she returned the gesture by waving back at him by twiddling her fingers. Her gaze returned to the boy as he mentioned the campaign he was running, the girl having heard of it, but not having much particular interest since it was not of her dorm. What happened in Serpens was none of her business after all. At the mention of the scavenger hunt though, her interest peaked.

The girl’s hands began to move about, in a motion that mirrored sign language. Should Adrian understand the way of communication, her gestures would say something along the lines of “oh I heard of that, didn’t get involved though. My boyfriend and I had other plans today. I don’t know what’s taking him so long.”

If life were like an anime, the man that was sitting opposite to Stella would be having fountains of blood pouring out of his nose. He attempted to keep himself composed while the beautiful woman in front of him was still in his frame of vision, but it could easily be told that he was nervously biting his lip. He didn’t spend the entire time acting like a jabbering idiot though. Once Stella placed the card on the table, he very professionally picked up the note and began to analyze it thoroughly with his big beady eyes.

As he read the poem though, he kept a nervous eye on the woman. He began to deduce the writings, but as he whittled down his answers, the girl asked him about his powers. He was busted at this point. “Uh, you’d think I’m weird if I told you. Let’s just leave it at that.” he stated as he ran through the poem yet another time in order to get an answer for the woman.

    In a truly rare event, Adrian dawned an expression of pure bafflement. He really had not planned for the conversation to go so suddenly sideways just by way of a language barrier. Now, Adrian had really proved himself academically, but languages were not a focal point in his repertoire. Least of all sign language. That sign language seemed to carry dozens -if not more- of variations left him almost completely clueless. He had heard, once or twice, that ASL utilized context for conversation and assumed he could make sense of things with what very little he knew. A few letters, at best. Maybe some of the more obvious hand signs.

    In this case, unfortunately, there really were no obvious keywords. It was like hearing a sentence with only the prepositions and articles to be understood, leaving the actual context completely amiss. But even that much he might be able to decode by a simple method of filling in the blanks with vague guesswork. ASL was far less precise, and far more contextual. In the end, Adrian found himself clueless.

    "Well, this became one-sided a bit faster than I expected." Rather than abandoning his new acquaintance quite yet, he settled back into his seat with a speculative look. "So, like I said, we're on a scavenger hunt. Stella, my, uh, partner for this event is over there talking to someone about our riddle." He cast a curious glance in that direction to check up on the state of things, it did not seem like she had gained an outright success in her ploy. "You see, I think we're supposed to find someone among the students here. Supposedly female. Behind a false face. I take you for being observant, so I'm just gonna ask if you might point me to anyone that seems suspicious enough to matter with all that in mind?"

Keeping a pleasant expression as the young man in front of her looked over the clue, Stella quickly turned all business as he narrowly avoided her question. Scooting closer to him, Stella leaned in slightly - briefly glancing over at Adrian to see how he was progressing before looking back at Poetry boy. "How would I think you weird? Everyone has unique powers, such as changing their face like the clue says." Stella easily referenced the paper he was looking over, watching the man in question with sharp calculating eyes.

TEXT TEXT TEXT

The female figure followed along with Adrian’s end conservation much easier than he had with hers. She nodded with his words and her eyes directed themselves wherever the teenager had pointed them out to. Once the question came along, students that seemed suspicious, her mind immediately jumped to the person opposite to her, but she obviously couldn’t just answer by saying he was the most out of place. She glanced about the room and pointed out the residents of Table 3, most specifically the girl with long blond hair that was making the most noise out of the three, either with her loud and obnoxious laugh or uproarious responses to her friends. She signed something in addition to that, but the meaning of it would be lost on Adrian anyways.

The woman would have been inclined to point out the person next to Stella as acting odd, but Adrian had already pointed the two out as being partners. Speaking of which, the boy’s anxiety level only grew as the woman continued to egg him on. While his attention was still on the paper in front of him, he couldn’t help but to peek back at Stella every so often. “Yeah, but my powers might make you really uncomfortable with me” he assured as he looked over the poem one last time. “Well, if their hiding under a false mask, maybe you can somehow take it off? Have you checked to see if anyone’s face is real?”

"That one, huh? Damn. I didn't even look at them twice." Adrian's eyes swept back to his temporary acquaintance with consideration, clearly taking in the image of her. "You're beautiful." He slapped his hand on the desk to startle away any chance at awkwardness before rising to his feet, "Unfortunately, duty calls. Thanks for the tip. Find me if you're interested. I think I could learn sign language if I really put my mind to it. Great chatting with you, anyway." He waved as he departed her table, scooting the chair back in with a kick of his foot, "Duty calls." He repeated under his breath with a put upon sigh, making his way over to table three somewhat begrudgingly.

"Short, raucous, and tanned, huh?" He asked himself before he met their table. Instead of inviting himself into their comfort zone and addressing the girls directly, at least at first, he put a hand on the lone guy's shoulder to catch his attention. "Hey, you know these girls right? Didn't just meet them today, kind of thing?" Obviously, he stood with an open friendliness, leaning in like he had a secret to share, "Wouldn't happen to know anything about the Valentine's Scavenger Hunt, would you? We had this whole thing with the quiche. Now we're supposed to find some girl. Promise it won't turn out like it did for the quiche."

As Poetry boy's anxiety level grew, Stella suspicion grew with it. He assured her that she would uncomfortable with his power, but at his question toward the clue Stella paused and the corners of her lips dipped downward momentarily. "I haven't..." Stella trailed off then, her eyes falling over the rest of the tables (and specifically what Adrian was doing) before bringing her gaze back to the awkward boy.

"If you're not going to tell me your power, then could you at least tell me if your power would help me with this?" Stella truthfully had no idea what would make the boy clam up so tight and it was frustrating to say the least. Nonetheless though, Adrian was moving fast and she needed to cover some ground so she could at least figure this out before him. It was embarrassing, but Stella couldn't cave - no, not yet. They were almost done and even though they were partners, Stella at least wanted to boast about winning to everyone else.

THIS TITLE IS MEANINGLESS

The mute woman hid her face with a mere movement of her hand at the boy’s compliment, hearing footsteps of another approaching her from behind. It was a rather Poindexter looking male, complete with sweater vest and pocket protector. He loomed over the woman in an authoritative manner. “Was that guy giving you trouble?” he spoke in his dark and low tone. The girl meekly shook her head, but the boy didn’t seem to listen since he very quickly followed after Adrian.

Meanwhile, the trio seemed to be aroused in some sort of conversation about cats, the bombastic blond bombshell showing off her phone with a cat stuck in a bathtub as the water slowly began to rise. She was stood out of her chair and pounding her fist against the table like an orangutan, laughing like one as well. The brunette was awkwardly laughing along, though kept still and looked completely lost on what exactly was going on. The man at the table had a big stupid grin on his face, making an obnoxious “Ooo, ohhh!” every time the cat slipped and failed to escape. His fun was quickly over as Adrian crept up onto him. The two girls also looked up to him. The boy was a bit lost, still being mesmerized by the cat video, but able to understand where he was coming from. “Nah man, I’ve known-“ he was cut short by the appearance of a new man on the scene though.

The very scrawny nerdy looking guy yanked at the back of Adrian’s collar with about four times the force that one would expect from a lightweight like him. “Isabelle’s already got a boyfriend. You best go back and apologize for not knowing any better” he commanded in a half polite, half threatening tone.

---

The boy looked down for a moment, cringing a bit considering that he really wanted to help out the pretty lady, but didn’t want to give away his secret. He supposed he could attempt something to help her, but he wouldn’t really know where to start. Her gaze seemed to be off of him for a moment and he followed it. As his vision deterred to the table that Adrian was approaching, he noticed something off about one of the student’s sitting there. To be fair, some people had peculiar powers that would make them stand out like a sore thumb to him, but he had a sneaking suspicion that it was what Stella was looking for.

“Well, uh, that person over there… Their body is filled with sand instead of… you know fleshy bits” he stated in an awkward manner as he pointed to Table 3.

    Now, knowing Adrian as a classic jock-type student, there are certain things people expect from him. Excellent grades. Superb athleticism. Experienced in schoolyard brawls. But maybe not his presence of mind or his charming wit. The reality is, with the tug of his collar nearly pulling him off balance, first instinct demands that he retaliate with a wide hook as he turns. He's certainly tussled with more intimidating individuals with flashier powers. The trick was: hit them fast, hit them hard. 

    The problem with that entire line of thinking in this particular situation seemed a singular, paltry thing most people would not have the patience for. But for Adrian, the concern over House Leader elections persisted and, in fact, endured his reflex. So instead, he simply turned and pulled away from his accuser with a condescending look that spoke for him, Don't you know who I am?

    Now the reality of the situation would clearly, to all other students, show that the scrawny nerd had been the aggressor. His hand on Adrian's collar. His arm reaching up to keep a hold on it, if the mere act of pulling away with a twist had not disentangled them. His demands being served with words that could only be regarded as idiotic. Perhaps misogynistic, if Adrian could spin it that way. Oh, yes. Clearly, Adrian was not the one at fault here.

    "Isabelle, huh? That's a pretty name." He spoke it as if to himself, but it would have the desired effect, egging his opponent on and potentially further flattering the mentioned. "Whoa! Calm down, man. If she didn't want to talk to me, she should've said something." At this, he grinned wide, aiming the victorious expression at Isabelle to show that he was only teasing, and certainly not at her expense. If that served to surreptitiously take his eyes off of his attacker and perhaps allow the boy to swing at him... Well, he was sure he could take a hit. Or a teacher would step in. Ah, now there's a ploy!

As she waited silently for the Poetry boy to respond to her request, Stella looked over at Adrian once more - watching as another student started to walk toward him as if he were looking for a fight. "Oh, no..." The woman mumbled to herself. Was he going to really start a fight now? Needless to say, Stella had next to zero faith in Adrian. Seconds passed then as the Poetry boy finally said something, looking back at him and then looking toward table three in surprise - Stella's brows raised significantly.

"Wait, which person? Can you point them out for me?" Stella asked the boy then, growing anxious. Her eyes briefly passed over everyone in the area, before looking back once more at the Poetry boy. A brief thought passed through her mind, wondering what kind of power he could have if he was able to see someone filled with sand. While her thoughts were mixed with winning and what kind of fight Adrian was about to get into, it was only after the fact that a slow sense of realization started to spread across Stella's face.

SCAVENGER HUNT?

Isabelle did not seem to be as jovial toward the situation as Adrian was, the mocking of the nerdy boy only seeming to trigger worry on her face as she hastily retrieved her phone and put her thumbs to work. Seeing how quickly the situation was escalating, however, she couldn’t stay dormant. She rushed to her feet, though encroached on the area in a much more subtle manner so that the aggressor wouldn’t pick up on her coming.

The occupants of table three, just like the rest of the students in the dining hall, had their attention on the confrontation between Adrian and the lesser known male. The blond eagerly pulled up her phone and began recording the occasion since super powered fights were always cool. The boy of the table looked rather confused at it all and uttered something along the lines of “whoa man, it ain’t that serious.” Meanwhile, the subtle brunette just silently watched, which wouldn’t look out of place so long as someone didn’t look under the table. The lower half of her body had deformed into strands of sand that slowly slithered past her pretend friends’ feet.

The nerdy boy’s face furrowed at Adrian’s last comment, as though it was a stab at the girl, especially with the toxic grin he shot at her a mere moment afterwards. “Don’t go teasin’ her, cock brain” he bellowed with an aggressive shove. Not too long afterward, he grasped for the Dorm Leader’s collar once and swiftly revved his fist for an attack, but before he could take a swing at Adrian, the tendrils wrapped around his ankles and swept him off his feet causing the goliath to fumble backwards and drop flat on his back while the sand held him against the floor, his face quickly growing to panic as he attempted to free himself to no avail.

Unfortunately, Isabelle reacted quicker than the sentient sand had. She rushed to a safe distance and opened her mouth wide as some strange organic tubing began to grow out from the back of her throat until a green goo of adhesive fired out of it like a cannon. It was originally aimed at the back of the nerdy bully’s head, but since he was swept out of the way, the goo’s trajectory accidentally changed to Adrian’s face.

---

Meanwhile, at one of the many spectator tables, the nervous boy watched the confrontation along with Stella. “Wow, he’s so civil. He’s got my vote” he whispered to himself, almost forgetting that he had company for a moment. He was so lonely otherwise.

The Poetry boy licked his teeth and peered over at the other table once again, trying to figure out how to describe the girl he was pointing out better considering that merely pointing wouldn’t help their situation. “Uh… It’s kinda hard to say. The way I see things and the way you see things is kind of… different. I… uh” as he squinted, trying to fight against his powers he began to notice something weird going on with the lady made of sand. Her legs seemed to split off into different pieces. “Just uh… look for the girl that just became a sand octopus…”

    Cock brain? Adrian's disdain became nearly palpable as the boy reared his fist back. If it were not for the entire plan to revolve around avoiding himself being the one at fault he would have already laid this kid out with conclusive force. As it was, everyone else seemed to be in a frenzy and the moment that fist connected, Adrian would be in a righteous position, both morally and ecstatically. Despite it all, and definitely not visible to any onlookers, Adrian spent the half second he needed to psychologically prepare himself for incoming pain.

    Thankfully, that happened to be when his attacker suddenly flipped over - backwards? - into a defeated and panicked position. Not dazed, unfortunately. Nonetheless, Adrian gave a triumphant grin, not to gloat over his humiliated adversary at his feet, but because the sand tangling his opponent was clearly the staff intervention he had been hoping for. Now to seek out where it's coming from...

    "Hah! Found yo-Herk!" Adrian reared back with a rare moment of shock and confusion as he was slapped in the face by some kind of thick, sticky sludge. Nose and mouth sealed over, Adrian allowed himself all of two seconds of panic before focusing on the problem. Can't breathe! Hardened determination washed over him the moment he could think, sending him into action. Immediately, he steadied his footing and began to dig his fingers under the goo in an attempt to remove it from his face. I can hold my breath for a little over a minute. Everything will be fine!

Stella waited impatiently for the Poetry boy to answer her question, tapping her fingers anxiously in the process. Finally as the boy pointed out the one orange out of all the apples, Stella nodded briskly. "Thank you!" She exclaimed to the boy easily, standing up and heading over to the other table in a rush.

As she did so though, an awkward scene played out before her causing the young woman to stop momentarily and start mentally cursing to herself. Her partner in crime had his face covered in what appeared to be some disgusting green goo and the person she was trying to discover was just on the other side. The teenager faced a decision - a very frustrating one at that. As the chaos continued, Stella let one curse slip out of her lips and turned toward Adrian - running up to the young man with the click clack of her shoes. "Let me help you," she demanded of the red head then - reaching forward to dig her fingers into the goo with only a little bit of hesitation.

The young woman started to pull then, managing to have her fingers on one of the same sides that Adrian had his. Stella silently hoped that it would come off quickly so that she could go back to the brunette in question and ask her what they had won, that is if she was still around after helping Adrian.

GETTING SOMEWHERE DEFINITELY

As the conflict was quickly resolved by the sandy tentacles arising from the brunette girl, the other two quickly began to notice that their ‘friend’ might not be who she said she was. Being that the other two were decently acquainted with the school’s police force they were quick to leap out of their seats, the boy stating something along the lines of “Whoa k, that’s not Britney, cheese it!” and cheese it they did.

The sand monster didn’t take much time to reveal itself, seeing that both the students participating in the school’s game had quickly caught onto her and the fact that she had to deal with some pathetic human that thought he was something when he was truly nothing. The brunette morphed into the colossal golem being that was Tem’s true form, the sand that wrapped around the nerdy bully soon transforming into the goliath’s foot and stayed that way so she could keep the deranged student pinned down until she could complete the other task she was assigned to do.

Her sandy yet featureless face (made from chiselled stone hew hew) pointed toward the duo as Stella was attempting to rip the goo mask from his face. The officer merely allowed a small wooden box to plop out of its bodice and then left the group to continue doing whatever they were doing. As she stepped away, she absorbed the panicking aggressor into the bulk of her body, but this time around made sure his head was sticking out because apparently humans had a major flaw in their design, that being breathing. “Human, I’ll show you just how much I hate writing reports” the golem taunted.

“Please don’t kill me!” was the last thing that anyone could hear from the boy before they left the area.

---

Meanwhile, Isabelle retracted her throat residing goo launcher and covered her mouth in shock, not expecting her target to be thrusted out of the way so quickly, or at all for that matter. She swiftly rushed to Adrian’s side, but clearly his scavenger hunt partner was much quicker to respond. The girl knew the work arounds of her slime better than anyone else at the school and while she could’ve let Stella attempt to rip the substance off on her own, she knew that there wouldn’t be a lot of time before Adrian could potentially suffocate. Without much warning and with Stella’s hands still in the thick of the bile, Isabelle hurled some kind of white and watery base-like substance at the boy’s face, which would weaken the current glob mushed against his face, allowing both of their hands to rip away the remanence.

As soon as she aided in solving the issue, Isabelle began to sign ‘I’m really, really sorry’ as fast as she could, tacking on a couple more reallys in order to get her point across.

---

Back at the loner table, however, the Poetry boy reached for Stella as she left, almost like he was attempting to stop her or slow her down, but she fled from the scene too quickly for him to catch her. His shoulders sulked as she left his table, most likely not coming back either. He grew a prominent frown and looked back at his food, or at least tried to. He sighed. “She had the most beautiful nose cartilage I have ever seen…” his head peered up for a moment to check her out for a brief second. “And the way her muscles wrap around her bones…” he whispered as he lowered his head and went back to eating. “Man, I’ll never get a girl like that to wrap their muscles around my bone.”

    Try as he might, Adrian could not seem to appreciate just how slowly his efforts were going. At all. The substance felt like it should be coming off, but his fingers were stuck in it on their own. The adhesive proving his immediate attempts a bit foolhardy. No matter how he pulled or dug his fingers under it, the stuff seemed to just mush by suggestion instead of actually peeling up properly. Resistance he expected. But this? It refused to be cooperative in the least. There might have been some progress, which kept him from outright panicking, but he could not trust it at this rate.

    So focused on keeping himself calm and, well, focused, he nearly flinched away at the sight of Stella's approaching nails. Her intent was obvious, so he allowed her the proximity. Even if it did put her fingers dangerously near his eyes. Where else was she supposed to grab? Some comical act the pair must have looked then, digging their fingers into his face in a hopefully-not-futile attempt to remove the green goo. Despite the rising desperation, Adrian could regard Stella with some favor for how quickly she came to his aid. Not like he would have held it against her otherwise. Still, the sentiment was nice.

    Allowing that regard to help keep him calm (tragically important when suffocating by the second), Adrian failed to see the incoming second slap of fluid, which soaked his face and hands. What was not already stuck in the goo, anyway. First instinct? Someone was trying to make sure this stuff stayed sealed to his face! After all this panic and nonsense, someone really wanted him dead! He lost track of his earlier assailant at least a half minute ago, but still felt like kicking out at the ground where he thought the guy might be.

     Asshole.

    Thankfully, this substance proved to be more aid than hinder. The surface of the strange substance lost its adhesive quality and by working his fingers into it the two began to peel up the rest much more successfully. At last free, Adrian staggered back and inhaled sharply. His lungs burned, but he struggled to even out his breathing before he hyperventilated or something ridiculous like that. How cool would that be? Okay, so fifty seconds may not have been quite as long as he could hold his breath in optimum conditions, but who ever suffocated under optimal conditions? As far as Adrian was concerned, breathable air was a basic amenity. Like bathrooms! The fact that he managed to hold on that long despite having no warning and his blood pumping like crazy, the fire starter actually felt pretty good about the whole thing. Other than nearly suffocating, anyway.

    Still a bit shaky, Adrian staggered back to take a seat, conveniently at table three beside a strange box he completely failed to notice. Really, he had other things on his mind, like shooting Stella a relieved and thankful grin. Not much of one, to be honest. Too drained from the whole ordeal to put effort or charisma into it, he figured he would catch up to his regular pace in a minute. Just had to catch his breath.

    Only after all of that had Adrian calmed enough to take note of Isabelle trying to sign at him. All the 'reallys' meant nothing to him, but the other one... He knew that one! It was sorry! "Ah," Adrian rasped, taking an extra second to clear his throat, "No, no. I'm totally fine. Not your fault." He completely misinterpreted what she was apologizing for, "Your boyfriend's..." Crazy? Homicidal? Possessive? A fucking hazard!? With nothing suitable to say, he cut himself off and shrugged dismissively, relaxing into the seat at table three with the two remaining students. "Stella. Don't ever sign me up for this kind of shit again."

All within a few minutes, the goo that was plastered onto Adrian's face seem to fall off with ease as the mute girl helped them. Falling back away from the two and making a squeamish noise after realizing what she stuck her hands into it, Stella shook her hands a few times as if trying to get off any remaining goo (despite the fact there was none sticking to her). Soon realizing that Adrian was going to be fine after he caught his breath, the woman nodded easily at his half-assed grin.

Instead, Stella looked around for a second - wondering if she could spot the sand monster that had left the dining room only a few minutes earlier. As her eyes darted around, they finally landed on the small wooden box that Tem had dropped on the table. Shaking her head at the boy, Stella lunged forward almost in a greedy manner - completely ignoring Adrian's bubble as she reached for the box. "Don't say that just yet," Stella said to the other teen - seeming to ignore the mute girl and all her apologies once she had her hands on what appeared to be the prize. Carefully, the young woman stared at it - reaching to open the box.