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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Dec 28, 2011 14:50:47 GMT -5
Having only seen the school in a power outage a few times before, Joshua tensed as the classroom was suddenly plunged into darkness. It was in the central area of the building and thus had no windows to speak of—even though it was broad daylight outside, there was nothing that could be done. The professor stopped in the middle of the lecture and cleared his throat. "Right, erm, if anyone would like to get that up and running for us?" A Thunder girl volunteered but though the lights sparked once and illuminated the curious and entertained faces of her classmates, it went out soon after. A male of her element with far too much confidence insisted that he could do a better job and also failed. Even when they both combined their efforts, it seemed that nothing was to come of it. "There's no electricity running through here," the girl reported, coolly ignoring the boy who had bragged about his superior skill as he sat back down. Josh disliked the both of them by default simply because they were the enemy. "We could keep it going if we formed our own circuit and charged it but that would take longer than this class has left, and it'll drain our energy." She gestured to her fellow Thunders to include them in the equation, who nodded. The professor sighed, sensing defeat. "Very well, you can all go."
The Fire graduate clenched his jaw as the Thunder male who'd stood up shoved him into the doorframe on the way out. "Whoops," he said, snickering as he sped up to join his friends further down the hall. Joshua thought about pursuing him but decided it wasn't worth it. He wasn't hurt, after all, just irritated. His shoulder was a bit sore but he was no stranger to pain and this was nothing. There was no open wound, no broken bones, just a dull ache that would fade in a few days. He didn't bruise easily enough to consider the possibility. As he no longer stayed at the Academy, Josh would not have felt comfortable shoving all of his stuff in the Earth common room in order to peruse the nearly pitch-black halls of his own free will and so he kept his bag with him, lighting the way with his fire as he walked. Some students had their cellphone cameras or laptops to illuminate their path and a couple Thunders had charged lightbulbs that created wide circles of light where they walked. It was almost interesting to see how other people handled the dark but he did not feel like staying in the school for very long. He was a college student and so a light source could be kept up for hours without doing much to his stamina but it was a pain to keep concentrating on it. If he wandered too far into other thoughts the light would go out. Even as he started to ponder what he should do until the lights came back on, the flames flickered in warning.
They kept him warm, at least. It was always nice to be out on the Academy grounds during the winter. In public places such as the Hollow he had to put up with a vast majority of the cold and snow to conceal his gift from mortals but at school he was free to carve a large path through the fallen snow if he wanted to. And that was just what he did—with a wave of his hand, an almost-perfect walkway snaked its way through the snow. He flicked his wrist again to make sure the way was dry and then moved down it at a leisurely pace. When not used for fighting, his powers had a pretty damn good duration—as did everyone else's in junior year, he supposed. He could see an Earth elemental nearby demonstrating her ability to grow flowers right up through the snow. He felt the ground start to shake as she suddenly made a quake, her friends laughing as they fell over one another and onto the ground. His lips twitched in amusement but he passed by the, sidestepping a crack that had appeared in his makeshift path. The path led almost right up to the cliffs before it stopped and Josh noticed that the lake was frozen in some places. It did not cause any more fondness for the body of water. He couldn't swim, he feared drowning, thus he would not step foot on the ice if you paid him. It could crack and I'm not taking that risk. Instead, he melted the ice from a boulder nearby and sat down, exhaling slowly. His breath misted in the air in front of him but Joshua himself was warm—a perk of being a Fire.
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Post by sebastian on Jan 21, 2012 17:57:36 GMT -5
 Sebastian stuck his hands in his pockets, shivering. He had a coat wrapped around his shoulders, but it did nothing to ease the chill that crept its way along his spine. It was moments like these that he envied the Fires. His lip turned down slightly. His own prejudice against the Fires had nothing to do with the apparent war between the elements. He simply feared Fire, and thus had a dislike for the people that could control it, summon it at will. Though he supposed he was bound to hate them anyways. All the elements seemed to have picked sides, Thunder and Fire on one, Earth and Water on another. He wasn’t quite sure where Wind stood. Sebastian knew he should hate the Fires and Thunders like bitter enemies, but he just couldn’t muster the anger. For the rest of The Academy, it was natural. It was like second nature. But Sebastian was a new arrival, only having just recently settled in to his new school. He knew almost nothing about the other elementals, barely enough about himself. Sure, some of his fellow Waters had tried to explain it to him, had tried to include him in causing various small mayhem, but he just couldn’t muster the interest. If they all hated each other so much, why not go to separate schools? Or just plain leave each other alone? Sebastian had considered raising these opinions, but from the way his peers talked, he doubted he would be met with support. So Sebastian kept quiet, he nodded and smiled, threw in a random phrase about this and that, just enough to keep from being pushed to the outside. That was the goal of humanity wasn’t it, to avoid being the one left on the outside?
Sebastian raised his head, pausing his movements. The crunch of snow beneath his boots had become almost rhythmic, a sort of soothing presence. But no snow crunched now. He looked out. A path seemed to have been cleared, cut neatly through the snow. Sebastian looked at it uncomfortably. The other Waters mocked the Fires, how they cleared their paths so as not to “get their precious feet wet”. It looked unnatural to Sebastian, though he supposed it was hypocritical of him to say considering what he could do with Water. The pathway seemed to be leading towards the cliffs, which was his own destination. Sebastian shrugged, it was an easier walkway to use. He walked along the cleared path, ignoring the glares and whispers from some assembled Earths. The whispers grew louder, almost certainly meant for him to hear. He raised his head, sending the Earths a warm smile and a wave. He paused, grinning at them as he shouted across the pathway. “Why not let them do our work for us?” He gestured to the pathway and laughed. As much as he wanted to ignore the Earths completely, life was a social thing. He wasn’t sure he could risk being labeled a “sympathizer”. The Earths seemed appeased, even joining him in laughter. They turned back to their own, lapsing back into conversation. Sebastian turned away, continuing down the path. His shoulders were hunched against the cold, blocking out the occasional icy breeze. It was times like these, rare but present, that he longed for the fires his father used to build in the hearth of their old home. He remembered sitting with Morgan, building forts out of blankets and huddling beneath them as thunder struck outside. The memory turned his lips up, just a twitch of a small sad smile.
The path was getting steeper. Sebastian trudged up to the cliffs, looking out over them as he did so. The lake, slightly frozen, spanned out below him. Sebastian smiled. The water was his entire reason for coming to the cliffs. He liked to look down at it, to watch its placid stillness, and to see what he could do. He spent hours sitting on the edge of the cliffs, simply making the waves lap on the shore. The scuff of shoes made Sebastian turn his head, noticing Joshua for the first time. The other boy, a graduate Sebastian believed, was sitting on a boulder free of snow. Sebastian paused, his hair prickling. Joshua was a Fire. In all aspects, his polar opposite and instinctual enemy. But Sebastian had come to the lake for peace, much as Joshua appeared to have. Sebastian cleared his throat lightly, moving to the edge to stand and stare down at the water. He wasn’t sure what to say, or if there was anything he was supposed to say. So Sebastian did what he always did, his fallback plan. He smiled and nodded his head in greeting. Joshua hadn’t done anything to him, hadn’t set any of his friends on fire. What was there to hate?
 ` tagged;; joshua donovan dale` notes;; first post, forgive the lameness` words;; 810` listening to;; waiting for the end - linkin park` lyrics used;; use somebody - kings of leon` graphics by;; rora @ hos` credit to;; rora @ hos[/b[/size] |
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jan 21, 2012 19:34:16 GMT -5
Joshua had once regarded the Waters with the same scathing and pointless contempt that the rest of his element often displayed, sneering at them if they so much as glanced in his direction and causing problems for them even as they did the same to him. He had not stopped to consider how stupid and pointless the alliances were because everyone had followed them and there hadn't been a reason for him to defect. He'd always been more of a leader than a blind follower but Josh would admit only to himself that he'd liked the camaraderie that came out of being a Fire elemental. They all stuck up for one another regardless of who was right or wrong and they'd formed a solid community of support within the school. Then Nell had came along and, well, things had changed a lot since then. He had been too close to her as a friend to turn on her, especially when the reasons had been so unjustified. Now he had to get used to the Waters and Earths—they were his allies now. He was no longer a proud Fire elemental but a traitor who their group hated. It was ironic to consider the fact that Josh had led the Fire element in the twelfth grade. Now he stood against them during the wars. Still, he considered it worth it. He had his fiancée and he was thankfully finding a good deal of the Earth and Water elementals to be receptive to his presence. A few of them harboured old rivalries or started new ones—Ethan Lovejoy came to mind—but most realised that his loyalty to Nell had outstripped his loyalty to his element.
That said, he did not immediately realise that Sebastian was a Water elemental. His own element could be easily pinpointed thanks to the green stripe through the snow that led straight to him but he had no real indicator for the other. Except perhaps the smile, which suggested he was not in Fire or Thunder, or else just ignorant to the ways of the alliance and its traitors. Many kept up with the gossip enough to know who had done what but those new to the Academy or anyone with the sense to stay out of politics (sadly, that number was small) could get away with being oblivious. They talked about it less now, anyway. He returned the nod and his lips twitched very briefly, not quite forming a smile but at least making him look less unpleasant. Josh was not what you could call a friendly fellow but he was at least cordial enough to strangers. He thought he might have seen this guy around a few times but couldn't be sure—he'd certainly never spoke to him, at any rate.
Hm. Should I say something? He looked away from the other elemental after a brief pause, not one for gawking. He did not like it when others trained their eyes on him constantly and so he was at least civil enough to refrain from doing it himself. Wasn't there a saying about that? 'Do unto others...' Joshua thought so, though he couldn't remember exactly how it went. He was more keen on memorizing facts and historical events than recalling some phrase he'd heard years ago word for word. He had a brilliant memory and a good mind for learning but he could only hold so much. If someone was important to him, however, Josh would remember a lot of what they told him. He was not perfect, would never be able to remember everything. He merely tried his best. He could recall little things that Nell had told him about herself or about her day on certain evenings even though he had not consciously committed himself to remembering. He could also recall a great deal about his childhood spent with Devin or the years at the hospital when he worked with Ace. No, if he had spoken to this boy on previous occasions, he'd likely have remembered, unless it was a very brief one.
To Josh, there was no such thing as an 'awkward' silence, but he certainly didn't know what to do if they were both going to be in the others' immediate vicinity. Would it be considered rude to just go about his own business? Was the other guy expecting him to say something? Joshua didn't always try to conform to what was 'expected' of him but he also didn't want to be rude. "Are you expecting someone?" It was a light enough question. Gray eyes flicked back to glance at the Water elemental—though Josh still didn't pinpoint his element. Some might have expected a Fire to be much more hostile but he had no reason to be an asshole just yet. As soon as he found out who this guy was and what he thought of Josh, he'd start forming opinions. He could be judgemental when it came to some things but he at least tried to view things with an open mind. Besides, when your best friend and fiancée were born of the sweet-tempered element of Earth, it was hard not to be a little affected by that. They weren't exactly turning him soft but he was realising that not everyone was to be distrusted. Just some.
[Woah. Excuse the ramble o.o I tried to make Josh say more but I couldn't think of anything xD]
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Post by sebastian on Jan 22, 2012 0:09:34 GMT -5
Sebastian kicked aside some snow. It wasn’t as if he could melt it all away, unfortunately, but he didn’t much mind the wet. It would have been quite ironic if he had. He smirked at the thought of a water elemental who hated being wet. Sebastian sat himself down, dangling his legs off the cliff edge. It was a risky undertaking, one not often chosen. It had lost its daring appeal for Sebastian. The knowledge of the lake below, and his own abilities, wrapped Sebastian in a sense of security. A pebble became dislodged at his side and rolled, clattering its way to the edge then to silence as it fell. Sebastian watched it fall, and the ripples that spread as it struck the water. Sebastian swung his legs slightly. His years of wandering before his arrival at The Academy had given him ample time to hone his abilities, though the instruction provided by The Academy had certainly quickened his pace of improvement. But he was confident in what he could do, what his limits were. He turned to his side, scooping up a small patch of snow. It melted in his fingers, creating a small pool of water.
He stared at the water, watching it drip through his fingers. He held up one hand to his face, smiling distractedly as a drop lifted from his finger and simply hovered. Sebastian grinned. He was able to manipulate, to control his element in ways he hadn’t before arriving at The Academy. He flexed his fingers, a sort of habit of his, then held his palm flat. The droplet lowered, settling on his palm once more. He overturned his hand, watching the drop follow gravity across his skin then drip onto the ground. It was amusement, if only for a moment. Plus everyone said practice made perfect. Sebastian brought a knee up, resting his elbow on it and looking down at the lake. He had heard the water elementals, actually many different elementals, refer to their leaders. Thus far, Sebastian hadn’t seen the water leaders, but he was curious. He imagined them as imposing, but with kind eyes and booming laughs, sort of like a younger Santa Claus. He hadn’t voiced this opinion, and was quite certain it wouldn’t be well received. He rested his chin on his arm. He had almost completely forgotten the Fire sitting behind him.
“Are you expecting someone?” Sebastian glanced over his shoulder at Joshua, the fire perched on his boulder. Sebastian flashed a grin, shaking his head. “Nah, haven’t met anyone to expect yet.” He stood up from his seat, brushing off his pants. He moved to Joshua, still smiling. He stuck out his hand, nodding at the other boy. “I’m Sebastian, just transferred, if you could call it that.” Sebastian held his hand out expectantly towards the other boy. Others of his element might have been appalled, even furious at his actions. Not only had Sebastian turned his back on a Fire, which apparently was like asking them to set you ablaze, but here he was extending the hand of friendship. Sebastian wasn’t entirely sure why he was doing it. Perhaps it was his outgoing Water nature, perhaps partly his desire not to anger the older boy and get into a fight he wouldn’t win, or perhaps Sebastian was just naïve enough to think there wouldn’t be repercussions. Whatever the reason, Sebastian made the move and there was no retracting it now. Alone on a secluded cliff top, he highly doubted he would be seen.
And yet there was that feeling, the twisting in his stomach. Holding his hand out, he almost felt like he was betraying his element. He felt like a traitor, like any minute they would surround him and cast him out. His leaders would spit on him. The dread and fear sank in his stomach. It had taken an experience like this for Sebastian to realize just what his disadvantage was. These students had attended The Academy since they were fourteen. They had grown up educated about who and what they were, and who to hate. They had been taught and observed their parents. Then there was Sebastian, who only knew that some rare people were “developmentally injured”. But he knew better now, and perhaps he would learn further with each passing moment. There were hundreds of outcomes to this one action. The Fire could react with anger, and attack. Or he could scoff and scorn. Or he could call his fellow Fires. Or maybe, he would return the handshake, a move of solidarity, and never speak of the action again. Th exact choice didn’t matter much though, not in comparison to the outcomes. And even the outcomes were mostly unpredictable. The question truly was, what would the Fire do?
` tagged;; joshua donovan dale` notes;; xxx` words;; 804` listening to;; waiting for the end - linkin park` lyrics used;; use somebody - kings of leon` graphics by;; rora @ hos` credit to;; rora @ hos[/b[/size] |
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jan 22, 2012 11:58:53 GMT -5
Joshua watched the other boy manipulating the water. Seeing as the guy's back was turned to him and Joshua was not outright staring, it didn't bother him to watch the antics of the other. He had never envied Water elementals their ability to manipulate the clear liquid because of a simple reason—he was terrified of drowning. He'd nearly drowned when he'd been pushed into the lake in his backyard at the mansion. Well, it was his parents mansion now but he had still resided there at the mere age of eight. A couple of guys from school had followed him home and onto the property, shoving him into the water when they'd got too close. He didn't know how to swim and he'd never tried to learn since. It was why he was on the boulder a good ways away from the edge of the water rather than sitting with his feet dangling over the edge. It was not heights that unsettled him but instead the thought of the dark waters waiting below. Twenty years old and you can't even swim. He didn't plan on getting lessons, either. It would be an injury to his pride if he tried to learn now. He didn't really care for the water or the ocean and so he was perfectly content to just loathe it and all that it stood for. That didn't include the Water elementals, though. Only Nell and his parents knew that he was scared of drowning and that he couldn't swim, so only they posed a real threat to him when it came to holding it over his head. And they wouldn't. He took comfort in that.
He regarded the Water carefully as the boy stood and turned to reply to his question, wondering if their alignment was going to come into play. He was on the guy's side but he didn't know if Sebastian harboured any old grudges. What Joshua did not realise was that he was new to the school and thus alignments were not common knowledge to him. He wouldn't know that Josh was one of the traitors who had joined the other side. That is, he didn't realise it until Sebastian put it into words himself. "Ah, I see." He considered the hand that had been offered to him for only a moment before shaking it. He offered his right like clockwork, unlike the problem he'd had at first with handshakes—being left-handed, it had taken him a while to grow accustomed to the fact that most people were not, and that it therefore threw him off when he stuck out the opposite hand to the one they were used to. His left hand was currently steadied against the boulder upon which he sat, therefore hiding the vicious scar on his palm from view. There was no hiding the scar on his face, however, a mark which could hardly be missed by even the least observant. Still, he wasn't as self-conscious about it as he used to be. Provided no one asked about it, Joshua ignored it. "Joshua. I've been here since high school; I'm a junior."
Figuring that his appearance would explain that he meant a junior in college rather than high school, the Fire graduate did not elaborate. Instead he stood, not liking to be the only one sitting, to his full height and leaned against the cliff face instead. The other boy was similarly tall and so Joshua had not been very comfortable with feeling dwarfed by him. At six foot three, it was rather hard to do so when they were both standing. His slight complex with height also stemmed from childhood, being the runt of his class and shorter than a great deal of the girls for a time. He was proud of the fact that he'd hit a growth spurt and caught up to everyone (surpassing many in the process) but he was not arrogant about it. He never teased people about their height—except Nell, but that was purely affectionate—because he knew how it felt to draw the short end of the stick. "So if you aren't here to meet someone, why are you here?" The question wasn't scathing or otherwise hostile. Hostility was a quality that he reserved for his real enemies and as Sebastian had not done anything to particularly offend him at this point in time, he was not a real enemy. He wasn't an enemy by alliance, either, though Josh was now doubting whether or not the other guy knew that himself.
Well, he is being pleasant. Maybe he does know? He could do nothing but make guesses at this point and it seemed far too random to ask. Not that Joshua was particularly self-conscious about being random or catching others off guard—hell, he wasn't self-conscious about a whole lot of things. He had a good deal of confidence in himself and had a self-assured air about him. He knew what he wanted from life and he thought he also knew how to get it. What was there to be worried about? That was how he looked at things, anyway. He blinked as he remembered the power outage. "Or are you just trying to escape the blackout?" It was added after only a brief pause from the question itself and it was posed as a question, seeing as Josh was unsure of whether or not the lack of power had driven Seb onto the grounds. Some people just didn't have classes yet and still others had merely came outside because they felt like it, rather than actually caring about the state of the school. Sebastian was a Water and so he wouldn't have been able to create a light source of his own. Would that have been enough?
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Post by sebastian on Jan 22, 2012 15:35:02 GMT -5
Sebastian noticed, for the first time, the scar running down Joshua’s face. Sebastian made no facial reaction, though his left hand twitched subtly towards his chest. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, react to the other boy’s facial scarring. In this area, Sebastian understood Joshua perhaps better than anyone. Though easier to hide than Joshua’s facial scar, Sebastian had his own. His lip twitched, thinking of the jagged raised skin under his shirt. His own scar spanned his entire torso, massive and twisted and repellent. Sebastian pushed the images away, though they weren’t easy to keep away when the image stared him in the face every time he changed his clothing. But he ignored it as best he could. His dorm room was almost devoid of mirrors, curtains hung from the windows. He had covered every reflective surface possible, though had attempted to make it subtle. The last thing he needed was peering eyes and suspicious questions. It wasn’t that he thought people would reject him, he had good reasons, but he had no desire for their pity, to be the “guy with that huge scar”. Plus, that would follow with questions about how he got the scar, which was even worse. It was difficult to explain the virtues of one’s sister, when she happened to have skewered you with a tree. He had taken to lying, in the event that someone caught sight of his scar. It varied with the person, sometimes he put it down to a deformity, or a childhood accident (which wasn’t quite a lie). But as Sebastian’s eyes passed over Joshua’s scar, he couldn’t help wondering if perhaps the other older boy would understand, or at least have an inling. It was the first time Sebastian had even considered speaking of it, and he dismissed the idea just as quickly. As kind as the Fire boy appeared to be, he was still Fire, and still a stranger.
“Ah, I see. Joshua, I’ve been here since high school; I’m a junior.” The words were spoken at the same time that Joshua gripped Sebastian’s hand, giving it a shake. Sebastian’s grin grew, though his stomach still turned at the thought of such close contact with a Fire. He had known from first look that Joshua was older, but hadn’t quite guessed. Junior in College, that would make him roughly three years older than Sebastian. A voice in the back of Sebastian’s mind reminded him that it also made him about twice as strong as Sebastian. His muscles tightened only barely, though his smile was genuine. He retracted his hand, settling both back in his pockets. He shifted from foot to foot, wondering what to say. But Joshua stood suddenly, revealing his full height. Sebastian stepped back a few paces, raising his brows, clearly impressed. He stood pretty tall at six foot one, but Joshua took the gold. Sebastian guessed Joshua was two or three inches taller than himself. Sebastian was used to being tall. He had grown up spindly and gangly, always a good head taller than his sister, Morgan. And until he was fourteen, he hadn’t had much contact with other kids his own age. He had only started to see great numbers of them when he began his search, travelling all over the place in search of Morgan. And by that age, he was still growing fast, inhaling food like his mother’s high powered vacuum. Sebastian looked Joshua up and down. He couldn’t help the growing unease in his stomach. There was something instinctively intimidating about a six foot three Fire in his third year of college. Perhaps it was the knowledge that Joshua could set Sebastian’s world ablaze with such ease, or just the mere thought of the element itself.
Whatever the reason, tidbits of Sebastian’s discomfort were beginning to show, despite his best efforts. He cleared his throat, trying to remain cool and calm. “Well any feelings of seniority I had just flew out the window.” Sebastian laughed, his eyes scrunching up as he did so. Morgan used to make fun of him for it, say he looked like a gopher. Others found it endearing. “So if you aren’t here to meet someone, why are you here?” The question gave Sebastian pause. He wasn’t sure why he was there, really. He was a fairly social type of guy, not really the type to wander off and find solitude, but here he was anyways. Though he wasn’t exactly in solitude, not with Joshua hanging around. Eventually Sebastian shrugged, glancing over his shoulder towards the lake. “Just taking a look around I guess. When I said I was new, I meant brand spanking new. I got here like, a week ago.” Sebastian laughed and shook his head. He sounded like a noob, even to himself. He looked over at Joshua and pulled a face. “Though looking all mysterious and brooding on a cliff won’t hurt my chances with the ladies either.” Sebastian winked at Joshua, of course completely ignorant that Joshua was in fact engaged and thus had no need to earn favor with any ladies but his own. And Sebastian wasn’t the most romantic guy either, mostly due to the fact that he was a bit oblivious unless girls came up and stated things outright. It had happened before, but he hadn’t found a girl really worth the effort, or the distraction from his main cause. He liked to think he had remained dedicated to his goal, though somewhere in the back of his mind he had long given up actually finding Morgan. It was just something that followed him, that he told himself to sleep better at night. And sometimes he had to wonder if he really wanted to find her, and what he would do when he did. But now was not a time for that concern. The more pressing issue was not pissing off a seriously powerful Fire with a gnarly scar.
` tagged;; joshua donovan dale` notes;; xxx` words;; 993` listening to;; waiting for the end - linkin park` lyrics used;; use somebody - kings of leon` graphics by;; rora @ hos` credit to;; rora @ hos[/size] |
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jan 23, 2012 16:08:27 GMT -5
Though Joshua did notice the subtle movement of his hand and the way that Sebastian's lips twitched, he thought nothing much of it and had already forgotten it a few moments later. The unease, however, was not as easy to miss. He was not completely oblivious to other people even if he often chose not to interact with him and he supposed it was fair to conclude that he could be an unsettling person. Josh was not assuming that he was the problem—the alliances would be a perfectly plausible reason for the two to be uncomfortable and so this was what he put his finger on. Sebastian had mentioned that he was new, a transfer, and so it would make sense that he was unaware of Joshua's stance. "I'm on your side," he pointed out rather bluntly, then paused before adding, "In the alliances, I mean. Just so we're clear." A lot of people got the wrong idea about Joshua and so he was not upset, merely used to it by now. He had been a rather intimidating ally back in the day, though more to the Earths than those of Water. He was getting up in years now, though, and so he stood a fair chance against the high school Waters and even some of the younger college kids. A graduate his own age, however? Not a chance, he acknowledged grudgingly, remembering Jane and suppressing a shudder.
Frowning thoughtfully at Sebastian's words, Joshua tried to recall what his first few weeks at the Academy had been like. He could remember being impressed by the grandeur of the building, which was much larger than the mansion he'd grown up in and had tons of sights to behold. The gardens dwarfed anything mortals could create and the forests stretched out around the mountains for miles. This was home for him, though, the mountains surrounding Maple Hollow. He lived in the town near the Academy. Still, he'd spent a good deal of his time exploring and trying to discover all its wonders. This sense of adventure had died out as he got older and learned the ins and outs of even the mostly disused parts of the castle but he still had a respect for the building. It was a pretty sturdy structure, too, though he thought that might have something to do with the Earth elementals manipulating the stone to protect it against weathering. He nodded at the words, not speaking. You're really fresh off the boat, aren't you? Wonder what it's like... Nell was a late transfer as well but he'd never really questioned her on how weird it was. They'd all had their different experiences, it was hard to really relate.
He made a noise in his throat when Sebastian spoke of impressing women, remembering with mild amusement when he had concerned himself with such things. "I don't need to worry about that, else I'd be sizing up the competition right about now." A challenging glint could be detected in his gray eyes but as his demeanour otherwise remained unchanged, it was safe to deduce that he meant no threat. His serious tone and the lack of a laugh or a smile to accompany the statement could perhaps suggest otherwise but Joshua never really tried to make his intentions clear to people unless he knew them well. Heck, it took some people months to catch on to the fact that not everything he said was devoid of humour. As long as he doesn't go about trying to impress Nell, I think we're good. He didn't usually see other guys as a threat right off the bat—only when they expressed their interest in the Earth girl or he caught them staring. See, he trusted Nell and wasn't really convinced that she would go off with anyone else. They had a functional and healthy relationship and there was no need to change that.
The heat from earlier on was starting to wear off; Joshua felt a frigid breeze brush his skin and he shifted with the discomfort. As a Fire elemental he had a natural immunity to heat and a higher tolerance for cold than other elementals but that didn't change his hatred for the winter. As long as it was cold, no matter how cold, it would put him off his game. As if that wasn't enough, it made his powers malfunction. Thankfully his age and experience lessened the chances of anything going wrong or the stamina drain being too substantial but it was still a pain when it did happen. To counteract the chill breeze, he scowled and flicked his wrist slightly, sending the warm outward in a gentle wave that melted some of the snow in close range and lessened it as the wave tapered off some ten feet away. The hand motions were practically unnecessary now but it was more force of habit than anything—they were used to maintain focus and give your brain a clear path to take when manipulating the energy. "I don't suppose you know a hell of a lot about the politics at this school, do you?" It was a casual question that was not meant to be insulting. Joshua had known a little bit about the elemental alliances and such from his parents but the real thing was always a lot more potent and complicated. "Sucks to be you right now, eh?" He chuckled dryly, not meaning anything offensive by this, either.
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Post by sebastian on Jan 26, 2012 15:42:37 GMT -5
Sebastian cleared his throat. In truth, the whole conversation was making him uncomfortable. He was doing his best to be normal, out-going, all those things most common in a Water. But truthfully, he would rather be anywhere else than on this clifftop. It wasn’t Joshua, at least not Joshua as a person. It was that quiet knowledge of what he could do. Sizzling at his fingertips was a power Sebastian didn’t have, and didn’t particularly want. While many of the elements were natural, at least to Sebastian, fire was destructive. It was chaotic. Water was life. Wind was direction. Thunder was strength. Earth was nature. And fire destroyed. It ravaged and raved. It left only ashes in its wake, ashes and charred corpses. As illogical as Sebastian knew it was, he both feared and despised fire. Morgan did too. They both had since childhood, as early as they could remember. He had never been sure where the fear had come from. As far as he could remember, he hadn’t experienced any sort of trauma with fire. No one had burned to death. Fire had never hurt him. But each time it danced before his vision, he felt his spine tighten and every inch of his skin went cold. Even after arriving at the Academy, after learning his strength against Fire, he still couldn’t imagine facing one and hoping to live. Sebastian swallowed. He was vaguely aware of Joshua talking about alliances, something reassuring in his voice. But the words were distant to Sebastian. He heard them as if in a haze, as cliché as that sounded. The more he dwelt on who, what, Joshua was – the more his panic grew. He took a small step backwards, towards the cliff edge. He wasn’t going to jump, of course, but he felt safe with the lake at his back.
Joshua had continued talking, going on about women and a lack of need for womanizing tricks. Joshua must have had a girlfriend, or a special prostitute, or something. Whoever that girl was, Sebastian didn’t want to be within 100 yards of her. He could just imagine Joshua, in a jealous rage, sending huge jets of flames towards Sebastian. His chest tightened. He suddenly wondered if Joshua was immune to fire. Could he be burned? Could he burn himself? It was a sort of ridiculous notion, but one that he dwelt on all the same. But he couldn’t dwell for long. Joshua was moving on, back to alliances and politics and everything about the school that Sebastian just couldn’t grasp, or bring himself to care about. He was peaceful by nature, quiet, scholarly. Morgan had always teased him for it. They had been like opposites, he and Morgan. She was ready to rush headlong into life, fight tooth and nail. She had a dominant personality. He was the pacifist. Morgan liked to say they got their genders confused – that she would be a really cool guy, where he could be a super sissy girl. It wasn’t a compliment, not in the least, but it was something that connected them. He pulled himself from his thoughts, mustering an uneasy smile. He wondered how visible his panic was. “I haven’t been able to bring myself to pay attention to the politics.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, shifting his feet. “That’s not really why I’m here.” He was babbling now, giving away information he didn’t want to give, just to say something. He should have just agreed, maybe asked for a lesson. But now he had given Josh an opening.
` tagged;; joshua donovan dale` notes;; such a bad post....forgive me` words;; 600` listening to;; waiting for the end - linkin park` lyrics used;; use somebody - kings of leon` graphics by;; rora @ hos` credit to;; rora @ hos[/size] |
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jan 26, 2012 16:07:29 GMT -5
The panic was quite honestly confusing Joshua. He could not tell how deep the unease of the Water elemental resided but it would take a very, very oblivious person not to notice that something was up. The conversation had gone dead quiet and Josh had never really known the Waters to be the quiet and brooding sort. Even in making enemies of him, most of them had chosen to taunt and annoy him until he'd snapped and initiated a fight. He had voiced his alliance in order to provide some sort of comfort in the conversation, assure the new guy that they were on the same side and that he wasn't going to haze him as some sort of introduction to the enemy group at the school. Mind, he wouldn't be surprised if one of his former allies did something like that, but he didn't bother with the Fire elementals any longer. His loyalties lay first and foremost with Nell. She was an Earth, so he stayed with the Earths. They were aligned with Water, and thus he was aligned with them as well. It made sense to him and he figured that it was a pretty easy concept to grasp but then again, this guy was new. Did I make myself clear enough? Joshua was not easily thrown off but Sebastian was pretty good at making him doubt himself.
He blinked gray eyes at the Water, considering him. "You might want to start," he suggested. Politics, as annoying as they were, tended to be of prime importance at the Academy. Studies usually came first but the arguments and alliances were never far behind. It was old news for someone that used to be an elemental leader but he supposed it could be a real headache for someone that had only arrived a week ago. "They usually fill you in at orientation but, ah, you sure don't look like a ninth grader, so..." He shrugged, though internally he wondered if they'd let an older kid sit in on the orientation if they were starting at the beginning of the year. It didn't really matter, seeing as Sebastian hadn't started at the beginning, but it was something to think about. I would have, he thought to himself. He'd been relaxed in his position of power, though he had liked it. Joshua wasn't too comfortable with following someone else's orders. He wasn't naturally rebellious but it made him uneasy when someone told him to do something that he didn't like. He much preferred to be in charge of his own decisions. "Well, my fiancée's on your side, inherently, I am too. I won't cause you any problems."
He raised his hands lightly in a mock gesture of surrender, exposing the deep scar on his left palm before he dropped them back down again. He had a lot of scars to be getting on with. "Right, right," he replied, nodding when Sebastian said that he wasn't here to participate in politics. That's rich, thought Josh, though he knew that he probably hadn't meant it in a scathing way. No one really attended the Academy for the sake of participating in the games of the elements. "I'm going to take a lucky guess—you're here so that your powers don't run amok and destroy things? Yeah, so's everyone else. Except us college students, seeing as we've already been through that." He chuckled dryly under his breath. "Unless you were going to tell me you're a government spy or something," he added, smirking. He was only messing with him. He hadn't realised that Sebastian was here looking for Morgan because the thought hadn't occurred to him. Most people were referred to the Academy by a scout or else sent by their parents, it was pretty rare that the person discovered it on their own.
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