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Post by ASHTON CAMDEN RALEIGH on Jun 25, 2011 11:59:56 GMT -5
Ashton gave a sharp noise of fright as the Fire student sent another blast of hot flame toward him, just barely managing to throw himself to the side and out of the way. "Woah!" He winced as he came close to slamming his head off the edge of a desk, ducking out from under it and starting to get up as the other student stormed closer. Ashton threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender, green eyes wide. "I'm not entirely sure what I did but I--hey, watch it!" Once again he found himself just barely moving out of range as a tongue of flame flicked out like a whip through the air. These Fire students were so pushy and violent! "Can't you just calm down and tell me why you're so angry?" Ashton pleaded, not wanting to start an unnecessary fight. "We don't have to be unreasonable!"
The Fire boy glared and formed a ball of flame in the palm of one hand, throwing it at him. He was visibly starting to tire, but it didn't seem to bother him as he snapped, "You don't have to do anything! That's just it--you don't do anything!" Another hot ball of fire. This one singed Ashton's arm, the Earth student crying out in pain and clutching the burn with a wince. "Fight back, chicken shit!" the other boy goaded. "If you're too weak to use your wimpy Earth powers, at least throw a punch or something!" He seemed to be begging for a fight as he practically bounced on the balls of his feet, sneering and glaring and breathing heavily from the exertion of using his attacks in the winter. Ashton pegged him as a senior by the way he could conjure his fire even in the chill of winter, but he was lucky it was an off season, else he'd have been toast... perhaps literally.
"I don't want to fight," Ashton said in exasperation, moving toward the door of the room backward without taking his eyes off the angry Fire elemental. Then, whilst his opponent was gearing up for another wave of attacks, he dashed out of the room and slammed the door shut behind him, hoping that this would stall the Fire student long enough for an escape. Choosing a random hallway, he turned down it and ran for a while ignoring the strange glances he was getting from certain students in the hall. Why did the stupid Fire students have to be so damned arrogant?
He ran out of breath, however, nearly sliding down a wall as he stopped and leaned against it. Crap... where am I? Ashton knew the castle pretty well, but this was a part of it he hadn't been to before. Glancing at a nearby door confirmed it to be one of the college wings. Great, so now he was alone, lost, and being pursued by a Fire student determined to force him into aggression. Did he still have that map in his bag? Ashton turned red with self-consciousness despite his solitude when he noticed the mess of his pack, realising that it was high time he did some spring--or, erm, winter--bag cleaning or something. It took him a while to get closer to the bottom layer of stuff, and before he could pull out the map he heard footsteps from behind him.
Positive that it was the Fire student, an uncharacteristic burst of frustration fuelled his powers. "Stop following me," he demanded, and the hallway started to shake as the earth underneath it rumbled. His energy immediately started to take a massive hit due to the unplanned earthquake, which was cut short due to his exhaustion as he nearly fainted. Juniors were not supposed to do such things, but it had been a momentary burst of anger that he couldn't control. "Just go away and leave me alone for once, I don't want to fight you."
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Post by marci5 on Jun 25, 2011 12:56:03 GMT -5
Lissa never did have a good sense of direction. That was her brother's department. Back when they would spend all their time together, her curiosity would get them into all sorts of places and his level head would get them out again. But here, even though she'd spent a good two years learning the hallways and rooms of the academy, she didn't have a twin brother to lead her to rights. Thus, when she was let out of her last class, she decided to find herself a shortcut and got herself lost. Her curiosity had taken her somewhere she'd never been before, and there was no one around for her to ask directions from.
So she skipped along the corridors until she had made herself absolutely certain that she was never going to get out of this by woman's intuition. She saw a great many interesting things, but no people, and thus she finally decided to sit against the wall and pull her backpack in front of her. Maybe she still had that map they'd given her. She opened the main pocket and riled through it a bit unsuccessfully. Letting out a long, deep breath, the small girl rested her head against the wall. Well....hopefully someone would find her. Maybe they'd look for her when she didn't show up that night in the dorms.
She was just about to doze off when she heard someone basically slamming himself against the wall down the hall. She squeaked a little and jumped, then looked at the source of the noise. Then she relaxed. It was just a boy, looking exhausted and perhaps a little lost himself. He looked about him, but didn't look in her direction. She tilted her head, watching him for a few seconds, then beamed when he started searching through his own backpack. Maybe he had a map! She stood, not bothering to zip of her backpack as she threw it over her shoulder, approaching the boy. Hopefully he'd help her out.
But then he seemed to notice her, and he immediately snapped at her. Her giddiness was lost in complete bewilderment. Following him? She'd never met him before? She stopped walking toward him, opening her mouth to say...something...when she felt the ground start to shake beneath her. Another shriek left her, this one louder and more fearful as she flung herself against the wall and curled up into a ball, back against the wall, butt on the floor, knees in her face. She clutched the strap of her backpack so tightly her knuckles went white, and her whole body was shaking by the time the hallway had stopped shaking.
I'm going to die, I'm going to die....
[/color] She chanted to herself internally, screwing her eyes shut and refusing to look at the boy she now knew to be an earth elemental. Her teeth were chattering too much for her to speak rightly, but when he spoke again, she raised her face enough to plea. ”I don't want to fight. I'm sorry, I'll go away.”[/color] [/blockquote][/center][/size] |
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Post by ASHTON CAMDEN RALEIGH on Jun 25, 2011 13:25:29 GMT -5
After the shaking stopped, Ashton threw up a feeble shield of earth and vines to try and protect himself--he was practically unconscious behind the mass of plantlife as he stayed slumped against the wall, panting. He didn't notice that the 'assailant' was in fact a girl until he heard her voice, sounding a little faint past the ringing in his ears. His skull was aching with the headache that had been brought on by the exertion and he felt quite sick. His professors probably would have been impressed by such a display of elemental power but there was one problem--he didn't want that to happen ever again. He wasn't normally so able to call upon the earth, he supposed it was fear and rare rage that had fuelled him.
All the same, the fact that it was a girls voice confused him and made him furrow his brow a little. "H-Huh?" Slowly, as if hesitant to do anything that might take him under completely, the earth boy allowed the vines to unwind from one another, collapsing into a mass of tangled greenery on the floor of the corridor. Wide eyes took in a girl whom he had never met before and whom looked quite scared. Ashton tried to remember what it was she'd said to him, his vision going a little unfocused for a moment. Damn it! He blinked, trying to get his gaze to go sharp once more. Once the majority of the blurriness had cleared, he winced and waved his hands a little in what normally would have been a frantic gesture of apology but which now appeared to be in pathetic slow motion.
"N-No, I'm sorry," Ashton stammered, turning red as a cherry with embarrassment. "Oh, jeez, I didn't hurt you did I?" Guilt overwhelmed him for a moment as his brows knitted together with obvious concern. "Gosh, I'm so sorry," he apologised again, unable to find the right words to really make it sound sincere. It was sincere, after all, but coming from someone who'd just attacked you apologies didn't always seem like the most trustworthy of things. Using the wall as leverage, Ashton helped himself up and offered a tentative hand to the girl. He didn't even know if he'd have enough strength to pull her up and so perhaps it wasn't the brightest of ideas he'd ever had, but hey. The boy was flustered and he felt bad and oh, this day was just terrible. It truly wasn't for him. "Erm, a-are you okay?" He noticed that she was shaking and ducked his head. Oops.
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Post by marci5 on Jun 25, 2011 13:53:20 GMT -5
She heard the small sound of confusion, but didn't process it. Right now she was trying to pretend that by covering her face she was making herself invisible, and she didn't give enough thought to what she was hearing to understand that he was confused. If she hadn't been quite so terrified, she might have started asking him what she'd done wrong, and if he was going to hurt her. But she just sat there, trying not to make any more of a target of herself while she waited for him to speak. Or better yet, leave. Hugging her knees tighter, she took a deep breath and tried to stop shaking.
She shuddered when she heard the mass of foliage falling on the ground, not aware that it was actually him letting go of a defensive move. But then she heard the apology, his strained voice and the complete lack of threat in the tone. This calmed Lissa down enough to open her eyes and look at him, but she was still terrified, and it showed in her gaze. A timid little laugh escaped her when she saw his face go red, but she couldn't do anything but shake her head to his question. She was fine, she thought. Probably bruised elbows from slamming against the wall, but it wasn't really bad.
She took a deep breath, trying very hard to logic her way out of fear. But it wasn't working that well. By the time he apologized again she was relaxed enough to let go of her knees, but she still wasn't moving. Or speaking. She opened her mouth, close it, swallowed, and opened it again. ”I-I'm fi--” She didn't finished, however, squeaking a little when he reached his arm out. She was so certain he was about to attack again, she fell over herself in a mad rush away from him, stopping when she was several paces away and then turning back to him.
Oh. Realization dawned on her face. He was just trying to help her up. But there was still that 'what if' thought in the back of her head. She took a deep breath, trying to stop her hands from shaking, then said, ”I'm f-fine.” Her head was duck so that she could only barely see his face, in timid figure just stopping with it's vibrations. In a little bout of bravery, the thunder girl tried to take a step forward toward him, starting to hold out her hand. She opened her mouth, intending to introduce herself. Then she tripped.
”Ah!”
[/color] Was the only thing she could get out before she face-planted, losing her grip on her backpack. The pack, still unzipped, hit the floor and hurled textbooks and sketchpads everywhere, the contents making it extremely far for the momentum and five-foot girl could give them. Lissa let out a long breath, still prone, and decided not to try and get up just yet. She'd probably just fall over again. She did, however, roll onto her back and bring her hands to her face. ”Owie....”[/blockquote][/center][/size] |
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Post by ASHTON CAMDEN RALEIGH on Jun 25, 2011 16:17:51 GMT -5
The girl seemed so terrified of him that Ashton almost didn't know what to do with himself, actually jumping when she squeaked and pulled back her hand to scamper out of his way. "Oh goodness, I'm sorry!" Again. How many times was it that he'd say that, now? You're going to wear out your sincerity! But he really did feel awful even though he wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to be feeling awful for. Well, attacking her intially of course--but he'd already apologised for that! Was he using his power unintentionally and hurting her without even realising it?
Ashton jerked his hand back instinctively at the thought, ducking his head. Damn it, he felt like such a loser and a jerk. She said that she was fine, however, and he exhaled a bit in relief. "Oh, okay," Ashton breathed. "Well that... that's good." He was at least glad that she wasn't hurt, even though she seemed terribly shaken up about the whole thing. Ashton almost held out a hand to her again, but decided against it seeing how bad his reception had been last time. What element was she in? Water or Wind, he figured those were the most likely ones. A Fire student would have slaughtered him on sight if he'd attacked them even accidentally, and the Thunder kids weren't much better. Though admittedly his advantage over their element usually kept them at a safer distance than the pyromaniacs.
The girl stuck out her hand and Ashton gave a quiet smile of relief as he realised she might be willing to put his accidental mishaps behind her and allow him to make it up to her, but his green eyes went wide as saucers as she tripped instead. He started forward instinctively to break her fall but she'd put too much distance between them as she'd hurried backward and so Ashton was ultimately left to cringe. He opened his mouth to apologise again then realised that it honestly wasn't his fault and just bit his lip. She seemed like she was in pain now, however, and he frowned unhappily at this.
"Uh I'm... sorry again for scaring you like that," Ash said almost shyly. "Some Fire student was chasing me down and I thought that's who you were..." It felt like he was making excuses for himself and he waved his hands to dismiss this. "Not that it makes it any less wrong! I just--I don't know what I'm saying." He turned red again and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Can we, um, pretend it didn't happen?" he asked hopefully. "I'm Ashton." He didn't have to mention that he was an Earth elemental considering his trembling demonstration just moments previously--from which he was still quite exhausted and dizzy. "Do you, erm, need any help?" She hadn't yet moved to get up, but he decided he'd offer this time rather than just sticking out his hand so that he didn't frighten her to death or anything.
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Post by marci5 on Jun 25, 2011 19:38:01 GMT -5
This was not a good day for Lissa. Lost, almost killed by a crazy earth elemental, face planting in front of the crazy earth elemental.... All Lissa wanted to do was just keep her eyes shut and count until he turned and walked away. That's what people normally did when something they were afraid of was about to kill them, right? They just sat there and stayed quiet until they'd made themselves seem unappetizing, or something like that. Although Lissa didn't believe anymore that the first thing this guy wanted to do was hurt her, she was still kinda shaky and jumpy.
But she calmed herself down eventually, feeling a little bit of her former brightness coming back just before the boy spoke again. And then she surprised herself—she giggled. Still holding her face, she let out a light, bubbly laugh that was normally saved for when she was watching puppies playing. She peeked out at him from beneath her hands, her large brown eyes alight with humor as she pulled her hands down to her mouth. ”You don't need to keep saying you're sorry.”
[/color] She said, still quiet but less reserved, ”Unless you're going for the world record, in which case you should keep going. Someone once apologized to me eighty times without stopping for breath.”[/color] Slight exaggeration, but not as much as one would think. Lissa listened as he told her the reason for his overreaction to her presence, and she pulled herself to a sitting position and pushed herself around to face him. Looking for all purposes like a puppy that didn't know whether or not it should trust something, she gave him a rather curious look as he said he didn't know what he was saying. She giggled again, realizing that he was just as out of his element as she was. Maybe he wasn't going to hurt her. Maybe she wasn't in any danger at all. Lissa's expression grew more content when he asked if they could pretend it didn't happen, and she nodded brightly. ”Yes, I guess we can. But only if you don't do it again. You could have hurt me.”[/color] Now that she wasn't afraid for her life, she was able to say this with less warning than she might have. The amount of indignation in her tone was minimal, and there was a smile forming on her face as she said it. Honestly, she was so relieved, she'd have laughed at anything. When he introduced herself, she smiled timidly and ducked her head a bit, ”My name's Lissa. I'm a—”[/color] She stopped, realizing what she was about to do. Would he act differently toward her once he knew she was thunder? They were natural enemies. She bit her lip, laughed nervously, and played it up as some residue of the fear she'd felt moments before. ”Aheh....Sorry about that. I'm a wind student. Really isn't much someone like me can do about the ground shaking!”[/color] She laughed as she said this, hoping beyond hope that he would take what she said as the truth. She didn't want to be attack by an earth, especially when she was lost. He asked if she needed help, and she shook her head. Then she looked at him thoughtfully for a second or too. When she was done, she nodded happily and patted the ground in front of her. ”No, but you do. You look exhausted. Sit down. We can talk a little bit before—oh, right. I'm lost. Haha, I really forgot about that for a moment. I'm lost! Do you know where we are? Or at least have a map? But nevermind that, first you need to sit down awhile. You look like you could fall over.”[/color] She said all this almost at top speed, as she was apt to do, patting the ground again when she was finished. [/blockquote][/center][/size] |
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Post by ASHTON CAMDEN RALEIGH on Jun 26, 2011 8:37:15 GMT -5
The girl told him that he didn't need to keep apologising, and of course this made Ashton turn even pinker than he already was. He blushed an awful lot for a boy. A lot of girls thought it was 'adorable' but most of the guys just teased him to no end. "I'm s--" He cut himself off and laughed a little at his own expense, realising he'd just been about to apologise for apologising too much. "I mean... okay." His green eyes were lighter, now, not as wary and panicked as they had been when he'd turned around and attacked her. But there was a dullness in them as well thanks to the amount of energy that attack had drawn out of him.
"Eighty?!" Ashton was so sweet and gullible that he believed her almost instantly, those green eyes going as wide as saucers. That was an awful lot of apologies. "I'm surprised they didn't pass out!" Even the thought made him feel as if he needed to breathe all the more to make up for it. "What did they do that they were apologising for?" he wondered then, his brow furrowing in a questioning manner. If you started spamming someone with apologies you had either done something terrible or, like Ashton, you were incredibly flustered and awkward.
He winced and would have apologised again, but he held his tongue and managed to say something else instead. "I know. I didn't mean to cause the earthquake, I guess I just overreacted. I don't even know how to make the ground shake like that on my own." When under intense stress, your power could do the most incredible of things. He'd seen water students create massive rogue waves and fire students engulf things in massive explosions of flame. But there was a downside--it was uncontrollable and often dangerous. If he'd done much more he could have passed out or even died. He'd heard of heart failure due to over-exertion and other similar deaths. Death was rare at the Academy, and when it did the school did its best to cover it up. No one liked such reputations in their name.
He was confused when she stopped after introducing herself, but he thought little of it when she apologised and told him that she was a Wind student. Ash didn't even consider the possibility of doubting her--instead he offered a wide smile. "Nice to meet you, Lissa. Even if the circumstances kinda sucked." It was a shame that Ashton was so naive and trusting, however. You could tell him that you were his best friend, then turn around and stab him in the back and he'd probably be none the wiser. He saw the best in people wherever he could and always gave others the benefit of the doubt. It was a good thing if you truly were a nice person, but so many girls had taken advantage of his sweet and caring nature that it was unreal. They told him they loved him and he truly returned their feelings, then they used him and dumped him like an old toy for some pretty-boy jock or something.
Ash didn't protest to the idea of sitting down; rather, he slid down the wall with a half-relieved sigh. God, he was exhausted. She told him that she was lost and he gave a tired laugh. "Well it's good to know I'm not the only directionally impaired person in the school," he said with some amusement. "I haven't got a clue where we are," Ash admitted. He didn't verbally apologise, but you could practically hear it as subtext behind his vocal tone. "I'm lost, too. I thought I had a map--I was looking for it before you, erm, before I turned around and attacked you." He winced as he owned up to it, then dug around in his bag again and pulled it out. "Aha! There we go. Map."
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Post by marci5 on Jun 27, 2011 12:56:59 GMT -5
Lissa had to giggle a little when he totally took her exaggeration at face value. But she decided not to mock him, even in a friendly way. The memory of the earthquake was far too fresh in her mind for her to risk upsetting him. Even though he was angry, she didn't want him to dislike her. She wanted to make friends with him so that he wouldn't hurt her again. So she nodded and grinned at him, ”Well, it was a freshman, back when I was a sophomore. He was trying to move the water in the lake, and I came up to the lake because I really like the smell. And the way the light reflect off the water as it moves. Anyway, he got annoyed because he kept failing, and he accidentally hit me.”
She laughed a little bit, gesture toward herself as she said the next, ”Well, I'm not exactly sturdy! So I fell into the lake and had to be fished out, because I'm not a very good swimmer—I can swim, just not very well.” She waited for a couple of seconds, remembered the absolute terror on the kid's face. Lissa had known that it was an accident, so she'd let him off easy, but she knew that a whole lot of other thunders would have zapped him silly. The girl tilted her head a little and smiled at Ashton. ”I thought he'd pass out, too.”
[/color] Lissa gave the earth boy a confused look, her round brown eyes going a little wide as her brow furrowed above them. Didn't know how to make an earthquake? ”You just did it, though. How do you do something you don't know how to?” She never had. Then again, she tended to try not to use her powers under any circumstances unless a teacher ordered her to. As a result, she didn't have very good control for a girl of her grade—just enough keep moving forward in the classes. She hardly practiced on her own. Judging by how seriously other people took their powers, she figured she was the odd one out. Lissa shook her head kindly and energetically. ”They didn't suck—well, ok, they did. But they didn't suck as bad as some other meetings I've had. You don't even go on the top ten!”[/color] Mostly because he was actually sorry about what he'd done. She'd met several people who really didn't give a damn about her, and it was rather depressing. Ashton, on the other hand, had made it very clear that he regretted his actions, and he was being nice to her, to boot. She gave him another grin and then scooted herself against the wall for comfort. She watched him with apprehension as he sifted through the contents of his own pack, hoping he would have one. She didn't want to be lost all day, and even though now she had company, she still really didn't like the idea. When he finally did pull the map out triumphantly, she gave a little gleeful squeak and bounced up and down a little bit. She felt an urge to clap her hands, but that might be a little bit too much. ”That's so great! I was so afraid that we were going to just sit here unless they realized we were missing, or someone just happened to pass us. But supposing they were lost, too? We could start a whole party down here with all the lost people who don't know up from down!”[/color] She was laughing as she finished, looking at Ashton to see if he thought she was funny, too. [/blockquote][/center][/size] |
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Post by ASHTON CAMDEN RALEIGH on Jun 27, 2011 13:26:26 GMT -5
Ashton listened to her story with wide eyes, chuckling a little at the idea of a freshman struggling with their powers. He remembered the feeling well from his first year at the Academy. He'd stare at a plant until it felt like his mind was going to explode from concentration, and then he'd see a leaf shift and get all excited until he realised that it was just a gust of wind from a troll of a Wind student that had a tiny bit of a better grasp on it than he did. He wasn't a Water student and so didn't know exactly what it felt like to try and shift the lake water, but he at least knew enough from experience that he could guess it had been unpleasant for the poor guy.
See, Ashton didn't target the freshman like others did. He was a nice guy and he didn't really have the heart to laugh at the expense of another. Whilst the other guys of his grade fell over one another laughing when they tripped the new kid in the hall, Ashton cringed and waited for them all to walk off before he would approach and offer to help them up. "You fell into the lake?" Ashton sounded mortified. "Oh dear, that's terrible!" He was quite a good swimmer himself but sometimes in a moment of panic it was possible to inhale water and start to choke and then you'd be too busy, well, choking, to swim.
It all ended well, apparently. Which was a good thing. "At least he apologised," Ash said with a smile. If it had been a Fire or Thunder student she probably would have been met with a harsh glare and maybe another shove into the lake. Of course, what Ashton wasn't aware of was that she was a Thunder student herself. "Bet the lake was freezing," he said, cringing as he remembered when he'd went to take a swim in it once and nearly froze to death as a result. "But you can just use your wind to dry yourself off so it wouldn't be too bad I guess." Ashton was an eternal optimist--if you gave him the most terrible of situations he would still fight to see if there was a bright side hanging around somewhere. It was both a good and a bad thing, depending on how you looked at it.
Ashton bit his lip when she questioned him, turning pink and feeling sheepish as he realised he had no idea how to respond to that. "I... don't know," the Earth student admitted lamely. "I just sort of... did. I'm not sure how. I've never done it before and I doubt I could do it again." Unless of course someone came up to him and startled the shit out of him again. Fear was a sort of trigger to an elementals power. Anger was another one. Anything that could cause a massive rush of adrenaline also had the potential of boosting your power. But there were downsides. Your power was stronger, but you tired easier and stayed tired longer. Sort of like drinking an entire pot of coffee to stay away. The crash would always follow eventually.
Lissa was very hyperactive and giggly in contrast to Ashton's soft and gentler nature. He was your typical Earth student, and he would have believed that she was Water if she hadn't already told him she was Wind. Maybe her parents were Water students, or something. "When should we go back?" he wondered, not exactly eager to get up and go just yet. "They might not miss us for a while." Unless she had classes or somewhere she was supposed to be. Ashton didn't, so the Earth boy was free to sit here and try to restore his energy for a while.
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