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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Mar 7, 2012 20:06:14 GMT -5
The streets of Maple Hollow were a lot like Calvin remembered as he perused their many ins and outs, slinking down the old alleyways that had once been known as the haunt of the gang his brother had played a role in. Cal himself had never been an integral part of the gang but he'd known all of the guys like they were family and he had went down with them when the police had unleashed their operation to shut the group down. His brother was still in jail and it was thanks to his being busted as a minor that he was not in there with him. Juvenile hall had been the provinces decision of what to do with him. Fuck those guys. His 'friends' hadn't made any effort to defend him, to insist that he was just a kid who'd been forced into the crowd thanks to his brother. Hell, his brother himself had done nothing. Calvin kicked at a dumpster as he passed it and emerged on the main street beside a pizza place and a bank. It was a relaxing summer day and many people were going about their business, completely unaware of his thoughts as he walked among them.
When he spotted the Earth elemental, Cal was jolted from his thoughts immediately. Hey, that's that guy, he thought. He remembered seeing him with a familiar face, hanging out with one of the guys Calvin had automatically assumed dead. It was his fault a lot of the gang had been taken down and they usually dealt with that through violence. They'd been somewhat of friends back when the group had still been in operation since the older Fire had still been the closest in age to Calvin himself. Having nothing against him, Cal would have went up and said hello if not for having no desire to gatecrash the conversation. That had been up at the Academy, however, and he hadn't run into him again after that. Now it was summer and he had nothing to go on but an appearance. That could change, he thought, making a spontaneous decision and heading in the direction of the Earth. He didn't know anything about the boy except that he was friends with the Fire but he was hardly a shy guy. Calvin crossed the street without bothering to check for cars (thankfully avoiding an accident) and approached shamelessly.
"Hey," he said to get the attention of the other boy. "You go to the Academy, right?" He didn't bother to be discreet about it. Having not attended the school for the first three and a half years and only joining up halfway through his senior year when he was released from the detention centre, he was largely unaware of most things to do with the elementals and their secrecy. "I wanted to ask about that buddy of yours with the scar on his face. You know who I mean?" He knew it was blunt but figured there was no point in beating around the bush for ages. He either told Devin up front or he made it look a lot more shifty when he finally did ask. He wished he had a name for the face to seem a little more than a stranger but he was shit out of luck there. Then again, if I knew his name I wouldn't be having this conversation. He wanted to get in touch and it was hard to do that when you didn't know a name or address or even a phone number. "I'm Calvin, by the way," he introduced himself, sticking out a hand.
[Wow this was shit I'm so sorry xD NPCs are difficult.]
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Post by DEVIN JAMES THATCHER on Mar 8, 2012 12:04:18 GMT -5
It was a rather hot summer day; in the Hollow the streets were quite alive with people walking to and fro, going about their business as per usual. There were quite a few extra elementals wandering around this time of year (unknown to most of the humans of course) due to summer vacation from the Academy. It was for the month of July, but it was enough of a break for the more studious students to take a breather before starting up again to finish the rest of the year. Devin was not amongst the ones recharging his batteries after tests, papers, and other random homework assignments; the boy was probably the least devoted to his studies and had no shame in this at all. He was very intelligent and although a lot of the material was new, his ability to recollect information after a brief encounter had the upper hand. So, instead of worrying about what September had to bring Devin decided to wake up a little earlier than usual to take a jog around the town. It was almost uncomfortable, the heat, so the boy took the liberty of going off in his mesh basketball shorts and no shirt. He received quite a few stares but who wouldn’t look at a random blonde kid running down the sidewalk shirtless? It was bound to draw a little attention. Ear buds in his ears, Devin scuffed across the pavement in long strides, his breathing in check. The heat was not going easy on his lungs today.
However, his run was about to be interrupted. Passing by a street lamp, Devin caught sight of someone running across the street. Normally this would not be out of the ordinary, had the person not been looking right at him and seemed intent on saying something. Devin slowed his pace and removed an ear bud, placing his hands on his hips. “Yeah, I go to the Academy,” Devin replied warily, raising an eyebrow. This guy did not look remotely familiar, so how the hell did he know about the Academy. Duh, everyone knows it exists. Maybe he doesn’t know it’s for elementals. He had never met this guy before in his life so had to assume he knew nothing about what rely lay behind the large doors of the castle. The next question was what really threw him off guard. Buddy with a scar? Devin blinked. Joshua of course. The blonde tilted his head ever so slightly to the side, finally removing the other ear bud and letting it fall around his neck loosely. “Yeah, I know who you mean. He’s my best friend.” Instantly Devin was on his guard, but did not give that away. Instead he merely smiled and shook the man’s hand firmly, his gaze locked onto his. “Nice to meet you. I’m Devin.” Releasing the grip, Devin placed the hand back on his hip and glanced around the street. How random was it that this guy—someone who he never met—came up to him out of nowhere and asked about Josh? And how did he know that Devin had been spending time with him? The first word that came to mind was ‘stalker’, but this Calvin guy did not really appear to fit that description. After all, what stalker comes out into broad daylight and introduces themselves in the middle of a public sidewalk?
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Mar 8, 2012 18:08:43 GMT -5
Calvin noted a bit too late that he might have been more successful if he'd been a little less brash but it was not in his personality to be cautious. He grinned when Devin confirmed that he went to the Academy, nodding as if he'd somehow predicted this. "Yeah, yeah, I thought it was you." It was a bit hard to tell during the summer especially when the other elemental was stripped of his shirt but Cal was pretty good with faces. Especially when they were faces he'd purposely committed to memory for reasons known only to him. "I'm a student there, too," he said, as if there was any doubt about it now. "Fire elemental." He might have been friendly but his temperament was not. Maybe it stemmed from the fact that his parents had died young and his incapable brother had raised him or maybe it was genetic, fated to be no matter how else he turned out. He wasn't one for psychoanalysis. Cal didn't know much about the Academy from his few weeks spent there except that it was fucking huge and that his group seemed to be incredibly prejudiced toward certain people. He hadn't learned who all of them were yet.
Best friend? Calvin wondered what walk of life Devin came from if he was best friends with an ex-gang member but even though he didn't have much of a filter he was not stupid enough to ask such a bold question within five seconds of meeting the guy. "That's cool," Cal replied, seeming totally at ease with this information, which he was. "He and I used to know one another is all. It's been a few years." He wondered whether offering an explanation for why they'd lost contact would be a good or a bad thing and decided that he would leave it for now, not wanting to scare Devin off. He was oblivious to the way the other boy glanced around the street contemplating stalkers and so his own relaxed demeanour did not really change. "Course, he didn't have that scar on his face when I last saw him. I reckon he's lucky he got away with just that, eh?" Cal chuckled, absolutely clueless about Devin's lack of knowledge on the situation. "Most of the people that mess with gangs get off a lot worse, you know?" He stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels for a moment. "You know how I could get a hold of him, by any chance?"
[Calvin has almost no filter, wow. xD]
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Post by DEVIN JAMES THATCHER on Mar 8, 2012 20:36:53 GMT -5
A fire elemental? Now Devin felt a churning in his gut that made something about this guy seem...off. Perhaps he was too protective of Josh and so having a stranger come to him on the street, only defining Joshua as the 'buddy with the scar on his face' was just enough to concern him. However at this point in time another concern seemed to rise up out of the menagerie of thoughts running through Devin's head: they were opposing elements. They were in the Hollow which put the Earth student at a bit of an advantage, but even so he did not feel very safe standing right there in front of a fire elemental he did not know. Just because Calvin knew Joshua did not put him on Devin's list of 'people to trust'. In fact he wasn't sure if there would be an ounce of trust until given a reason to do so. Normally he may have tried to stay open but protective Josh came first and foremost next to his own well-being. "Ah, I haven't seen you around the school. Must miss one another in the hall I guess." Devin shrugged, still trying to keep his cool and stay calm.
"Oh you did?" Devin raised an eyebrow, feeling a little more at ease. It still nagged at him to know that Calvin still avoided calling Josh by his name; if they were friends, then why was he continuously referring to him as the guy with a scar? Was it really such a defining feature that they forgot the man's name? Not to mention how sensitive his best friend was about that mark on his face. He remembered when he made the remark on the stairs last year about chicks digging scars, and Josh flipped. It was completely unintentional and in all honesty the boy forgot the scar was even there. Josh didn't, however, and he spent quite a while waiting to re-establish the friendship he had. Just as he was about to continue drifting around in his thoughts, Calvin spoke up again, still going on about the scar. It upset Devin to hear how lightly this guy spoke of the mark on Josh's face, and had he been a more aggressive person he might have spoken up. However Devin did not do well with confrontation. "Lucky?" Devin asked, utterly confused. Just as he was about to ask what it was that Calvin referred to, he answered the question two heartbeats later.
Gangs? The word resounded in the blonde's head over and over again like an echo in a canyon, and his heart created a dull thud in his ears. What did he mean by gangs? What did Josh do? The boy's brows furrowed slightly, now revealing the confusion he had been feeling since near the beginning of the conversation. Something told Devin not to ask any questions. He wanted to talk to Josh about this and find out from the source what exactly is going on. If his best friend decided to talk about it then great, but if not well...it was not Devin's place to push for information. He shrugged a little bit. "Well, he's at the school library quite a bit so you could always wait for classes to start up again..." Devin started, mulling over the idea of giving this man Joshua's number. Would his friend appreciate that? He was not quite sure. "But I can give you his e-mail. I always feel weird tossing out people's numbers. No offense meant to you of course." The boy said with a smile. That was a safe way of communication that did not invade Joshua's privacy and did not put Devin on the chopping block with his best friend for throwing his number around. "Do you uh...have a pen or anything? I'm not exactly prepared..." He chuckled.
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Mar 8, 2012 21:48:19 GMT -5
Calvin nodded in agreement, figuring the same thing as Devin did. "Not that it's surprising," he said easily. "I'm new to the school." At seventeen he didn't look like he was meant to be new but he wouldn't be the first late arrival to the Academy. People joined up late for varying reasons and so he had no qualms with admitting this to Devin without actually disclosing where he'd been. "Only been there a few weeks before the summer break kicked in. Never got a chance to catch up with your buddy. It's a bit strange since we're in the same element, but..." He frowned, furrowed his brow, then shrugged. The Fire elementals normally stuck around one another but maybe the guy was different. Man, Calvin really wished he knew a name. He kept waiting for the Earth to slip up and mention it in passing (though Cal didn't know Devin's element) but it seemed the other boy was smarter than that. Damn. It frustrated him a little bit. S'not like I mean any harm. He never said this, though, because he didn't want to make his chances even worse. He had no one in this town, not since his brother was sent to prison. He was a foster kid until he turned eighteen and the only thing he could tell his 'parents' about the Academy was that it was a 'special' school and that he'd be gone all year because of it. They were mortals and, according to the scouts, it was 'better if they didn't know'.
"Well, yeah," said Calvin. "Lucky. I mean, most guys like that end up dead." The elemental then started to get a little suspicious himself. He doesn't know? He closed his mouth then and decided to say no more on the matter, just in case. Isn't that something you'd tell a best friend? He didn't really know because he'd never been close enough to anyone that it could qualify as a "best" friendship. He adjusted as they moved on in the conversation and Devin told him that the guy he was looking for could normally be found in the library. "Really? Didn't know he liked that kind of thing." The guy he'd known had never really picked up a book in his presence and Calvin had always assumed he had no interest in them. He also had no idea of Josh's wealth, family, he knew almost nothing. Hadn't even known he was an elemental until he spotted him up at the school. "E-mail works for me," he said, nodding, glad to at least have something. "I get the thing about numbers, especially since we haven't kept in touch." He pulled a pen out of his pocket and opted to write it on his arm since he didn't have any paper handy. After that was through, he decided that he wouldn't impose on Devin's company any longer. "Thanks, man. Might see you around."
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