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Post by alexandre on May 31, 2011 13:08:33 GMT -5
* you're like an angel , BUT WITH BROKEN WINGS Lunch was always a meal that provided a varying mood when you entered the double doors leading into the mess hall. On one hand, morning classes were over. You had woken up from your sleepy stupor and were viewing the world with a little more clarity than you had when you rolled out of bed and whacked your head on the dresser. On the other hand, there was still the rest of the day to go. This was not dinner--this meal did not mark the end of classes and the start of free time (or study time for more dedicated students). So there was a a melting pot of situations. Grumpy people, chipper people, starving people that focused more on their food than the friends they sat with.
At the moment, Alexandre was a mixture of things all on his own. He was happy that his morning had come to a close--a professor had caught him harassing one of the Water boys in the hall and poking fun at him, which had promptly earned him a detention set for tomorrow afternoon. This detention had also fouled his mood a fair bit, considering Alex hated anything to do with sitting in a room alone whilst his friends horsed around in the mess hall without him. Said friends managed to cheer him up a little when they practically bombarded him with greetings as he sat down at their table, clapping him on the back and 'congratulating' him for scaring the life out of the poor guy who'd gotten him busted. Most of these friends were the rowdy Fire students with whom he also shared a dormitory, but there were a couple of quieter Thunder kids and a boy from the Wind element in their rather large group.
He was eating slower than usual today, slow enough that the majority of the crowd finished without him. They decided they were going to go hang around on the grounds for the last bit of time before classes started back up--they invited Alexandre to come along, but he waved them off with one hand and decided he'd finish eating. Sitting alone at a table that was usually largely populated felt a little strange, but he did his best to ignore such feelings as he picked at what was on his tray. The Academy's food was actually quite exceptional as school cafeteria standards went--had to be, considering it was all they could eat--he just wasn't feeling all that hungry today he supposed.
Sighing to himself, Alex pulled out his phone and checked the time. Still a fair bit until the end of the hour, unfortunately. It was early enough that some were still only just popping into the mess hall now. Some kids ate a quick lunch and just pigged out at dinner, others were starving due to skipping breakfast and ate half their table in quantity when given the chance. Rather than a lunch lady to dole out portions, the kitchen staff carried out large plates of food and set them on a long table with a stack of tracks piled at one end, and the kids were free to take as much or as little as they liked. It was a good system, but you had to show up early on the days when they were serving teenage favourites--things went quick.
[Sorry it was a bit short, but hey, it's a thread :D]
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Post by marci on May 31, 2011 13:47:29 GMT -5
One of the most annoying daily situations for Elaine had to be lunch. The mess hall was large and it echoed horribly, causing her ears to shiver with reverberations of hundreds of different students talking all at once. People didn't see her, cut her in line, or simply were mean to have a bit of fun, and she'd end up stumbling over things and running into tables and dropping her food all over the floor. Even with her wind to show to the state of things, there was just too much action for she to get a good grip on things, and besides, she couldn't constantly be sending gusts of winds about the groups of students. For these reasons and many more, Elaine sat outside for the first several minutes of the lunch hour, only venturing into the mess when she sensed many of the students had eaten and fled.
She strode in this time, a hand out in front of her as she sent a light breeze through the room. It helped that she'd been living here for a few years now, and she was familiar with the room, but getting the initial picture worked wonders at keeping her from extreme frustration. She walked slowly toward the buffet that was always out, pleasantly surprised that she hadn't been left with bare bones today. She could tell by the smells that there was still plenty. Teenagers were pigs, she decided, and wouldn't much care if one of their number starved so long as they got a bite to eat. But this time she had a full tray when she left the line, turning carefully and walking toward the other end of the hall.
There were still plenty of kids at the tables, but thankfully they didn't stick out their legs or the like. She had to walk most of the length of the hall before she came upon a table with only one kid sitting there. Not much in the mood to navigate any longer, she changed her course, bumped into a table, cursed under her breath, and stopped in her tracks. A long, patient sigh escaped her, and she sent out another wave of air—this time a little stronger than the first—to get her bearings.
Elaine smiled slightly, feeling smirks and glances center on her briefly, then stepped up to the table. A puddle of spilled drink caused her to slam her tray on the table as she tried to keep her balance. She cursed again, this time very audibly, before she realized that a boy was sitting at the table only a few seats away from her. Setting her jaw, she sent a direct blast of air at the puddle, drying it completely.
”Today is not a good day.” She said, not really caring who heard. Even with her wind and ample food, today was not a good day.
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Post by alexandre on May 31, 2011 14:10:51 GMT -5
* you're like an angel , BUT WITH BROKEN WINGS Rumours flew in the Academy--just like at any school, the people with disabilities were often picked on. Everyone knew their names, their elements, and they were prone to target these students whenever they were in the vicinity. Loners got much of the same treatment. Alex, however, was surprisingly not that big of an asshole. He taunted Water and Earth students, he caused more trouble than he was worth, but he wasn't the type to pick on some kid just because they had a stutter. (Unless he hated said student. Then he'd do it just to piss them off).
So when mumbles and mutters rose up as a certain Wind student (he actually couldn't remember her name, but he did recognise her) entered the hall, Alex paid little attention. The lone Fire leader was busy twirling a pencil around his fingers and watching it's bright orange length flash around in irregular motions. He'd found it in his pocket, when he'd tried to sit down and it had nearly stabbed him in the leg. Why'd he have a pencil in his pocket? Alexandre really couldn't bring himself to recall. He'd probably been in some sort of a hurry and shoved it in there after class. For now it became the object of his amusement, preoccupying him with far more success than his food had. Alex was quite fond of bright colours, the lurid orange fascinating him momentarily.
The feel of a table shifting caused the male to glance up, noticing that the Wind student (whom several people were smirking and chuckling at) was quite close by. He said nothing at first, figuring that she had just bumped into it on her way past, but then she slammed the tray down on the table and made him jump a little in surprise. Oh dear, someone's in a terrible mood--or is she? Bluish eyes caught sight of the puddle, and suddenly her rather erratic and sudden behaviour made sense. She sat down, and he welcomed her presence as few others seemed to have the capability of doing.
"Not for me, either," he agreed sympathetically. His sympathy was not because she was blind, but because Lady Luck seemed to be conspiring to ruin the mornings of several kids at the Academy today. Alex was not one for pity, but he'd certainly treat her just as he would any classmate whom he did not loathe and carry on a conversation. "I went and landed myself in detention again--at least I won't have to be stuck here tomorrow. No, I'll be down at the detention hall listening to a lecture no one cares about." A wry chuckle brushed past his lips. Oh, how he hated detentions. He'd tried to skip them several times throughout the years, but he was going to have to be a little more careful with that now that he was in a position of power. He could lose that position just as easily, he had to keep that in mind.
Realising that they had never before spoke in person (and that he still didn't know her name despite her disability giving her a bit of a reputation) Alexandre smiled. "Oh--I'm Alex, by the way. Alexandre Blackthorn, Fire leader." He had a reputation as well; a reputation for being either an awesome guy or a complete dick, depending on who you asked. He had a lot of enemies at this school, but at the same time Alex Blackthorn also had a lot of friends. He was good to his circle of friends and so they accepted him. "I don't think we've ever met," he mused. "Judging by the way you cleared up that puddle real quick, you're a Wind student though. We Fire students can do that too, albeit in a different way." He was oddly talkative for a Fire student, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. He was energetic, always had been. "What year are you in? I don't think I've got any classes with you--I'm eighteen in the summer but I'm only a junior, curse my rotten luck." He wasn't stupid by any means (his grades were average) but the stint in juvenile hall had been enough for them to fail him on account of all the work he'd missed.
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Post by marci on May 31, 2011 14:50:51 GMT -5
Elaine was rather surprised when the boy spoke. Her face turned toward him, though her sightless eyes were far from focusing on the lad. She could tell as soon as she heard his voice who he was—a girl got used to hearing someone piss of a water and then laugh with his friends the next breath. She'd never talked to him, though. Didn't want to draw too much attention from a guy as potentially ruthless as he. Her brow raised as he continued, talking about landing detention as if this was something they talked about very often. She smiled a little bit at that, not out of mean intention, but still a little amused.
Her lips pursed absently as she slid her hands from the sides of her tray to the end of the table, lingering on the edge for a seconds before sliding sideways until she felt the back of a chair tucked under the table. She did all this while still facing Alex, listening with all the polite attentiveness she could muster. While she was pleasantly surprised at the benign nature of his words, she was still not entirely sure whether to trust his niceties. She'd heard him at his worst, attacking students of water or of earth. It wasn't a long step to attack her.
She seated herself with the determination of moment that follow any person who'd been blind awhile. There was a method to every angle and movement of her hand, taking in the shapes and contours of object with one touch—it was how she'd learned to see before her power had revealed itself. He finished speaking just as she was checking whether or not any articles of food had been thrown about from her near trip. She smiled, tilting her head a bit, but no longer facing him entirely.
”Yes, I am a wind student.” Her voice was much more pleasant, softer than it had been in her previous outburst, ”My name is Elaine Reynold, and I am a junior as well. I'm seventeen as of this past september, and I think we do have a few of the same classes—I recognize your voice.”
Her hand found the bottle of orange juice she'd picked out, and she broke the seal as she continued, her eyes fixed on the wall across the mess hall despite that fact that she couldn't see it. ”So tell me, is it as much of a headache as I think to be Fire Leader? Pardon the pun, but you've got more than a few time bombs under your control.” She knew from experience. Wind elementals didn't have any real edge over fire elementals, but it was still quite a simply matter to blow most fires out. She'd played this trick on many a young fire elemental who thought they could pick on an older student just because she was blind.
”Regardless, I don't envy you the detention.” She said, ”Last year I was given a week of detention for starting a tornado in the middle of english class. Had to be the most boring week of my life. To keep talking down, the presiding teacher wrote on the board everything she wanted to tell us.” She chuckled, shaking her head slightly as she continued to work on her food.
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Post by alexandre on May 31, 2011 15:16:44 GMT -5
* you're like an angel , BUT WITH BROKEN WINGS Her voice was much more pleasant when she didn't sound so irritated. Alexandre himself had a bit of a strange twist to his otherwise native accent--his father was born in Ireland, so Alex's tone carried a bit of an Irish touch in some words. It wasn't immediately distinguishable if you weren't looking for it, but it was there. She confirmed that she was a Wind elemental, but surprised him by mentioning how they had classes together. Then again, he paid more attention to the friends he had in his classes than the actual lesson (or the other people in it) so perhaps it was not that surprising after all. "My mistake," he acknowledged cheerfully. He didn't usually like admitting that he was wrong, but this was a menial matter. "Yeah--I talk a lot during class, don't I?" He gave a mischievous grin at the thought and ducked his head, even though she technically couldn't see what he was doing. "It's just that it's so boring. Some of the classes are okay but after you've sat through them a million times--ugh!"
Sitting down for this long was not sitting--no pun intended--well with the boy, who was so used to being up and walking around by this time of day. His thoughts flickered to his group of friends and what they might be doing now out on the yard. Probably terrorising some unsuspecting new kid, knowing them. His lips twitched into a smile at the thought, but he didn't necessarily wish he was with them right now. He had company, and that was at least enough to keep him occupied.
She asked him about being the leader of his element, and he thought about that for a moment before replying. "Well yeah, we're a wild bunch," he admitted with an easy laugh, "but I guess I'm used to it since I've been around these guys for three years--going on the fourth, now." The Fire students were like a family to him. Even those whom he wasn't necessarily friends with. He'd stick up for them in a flash, and that was probably why he'd been elected as their leader. Had it been the Academy's choice as opposed to the students', someone with exceptional grades and a squeaky clean record (did they even exist in the Fire element) would have gotten the job. "It's sort of just like being the one in a group that makes the decisions on where to go, I guess. Some of the freshmen are a little irritating considering they aren't used to the school and it's rules yet, but I manage."
His brow furrowed for a moment in thought. "What's it like, being a Wind elemental?" he wondered curiously. "I mean you guys are all so different--is it hard being stuck with a bunch of people that clash like that?" He hadn't really thought of the couple friends he had in Wind as 'different', because outwardly their personalities meshed well with the group as a whole. The boy who'd been sitting with them today wasn't an aggressor despite his temper, however--his parents had been of the elements Earth and Fire, so Alex supposed that was responsible for it.
"I hope she got carpal tunnel," Alexandre said vindictively with a bit of a huff. He understood from plenty experiences that detentions were long and boring. Sometimes the teachers just made you sit there without even giving you lines to occupy your time. He'd had one professor that had made him stand the entire hour without a word. Needless to say, he tried to avoid getting into trouble when that asshole was holding detentions for the week. "I've gotten loads of them--I'd like to think that I'm getting better at evading capture, but obviously since I got caught..." He laughed again, the sound bright with amusement. "I'll need to sharpen my skills, I'm off my game lately."
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Post by marci on May 31, 2011 15:46:19 GMT -5
The blind girl actually laughed at that one. There was a tone to it that was not entirely mirthful, the wryness infecting her voice as well as she answer with much more impulse than she usually did, ”Boring, huh? Not to utterly slander the staff that shelters us from the rest of the world, but even the most accommodating teachers tend to forget that there is a student there who can't actually see what they write on the board. They'll have homework assignments up before you walk in the room and not even bother telling people what they are. No, my classes are infuriatingly not boring.”
That little burst of frustration surprised her, she had to admit. It felt good getting it out, but it was probably not the best decision to talk bad about the teachers to someone she barely knew at all. What she hadn't noticed is that she'd closed her hand on the bottle cap so hard that there was an indent in her palm now. She smiled sheepishly, ”Actually, I think that's what triggered the tornado.”
She nodded silently when he answered her question about the fire elementals. She supposed he didn't noticed the things that drove her up the walls. They shouted a lot, for one thing—something that overloaded her sensitive ears. They also made up a good percentage of those who pranked her, though they were far from the only ones. Next to them, the waters were the next worst, though they tended not to realize exactly how brutal they were. That was probably why she didn't hold it against Alex that he picked on them a lot. It was funny, actually. Elaine found herself musing internally about how they completely underestimated her because of this one defect.
She was pulled out of her reverie by his question. ”Hm?” She realized that other than her orange juice, she'd started picking at her food vaguely. ”Oh.” Being a part of the wind dorm was a bit weird. It meant she was stuck with a bunch of people who really had no interest in each other. There were as many enemies living together as there were best friends. She shrugged, ”A lot of them just ignore me, which is fine. The fact is, I've also got their respect more than your average wind student. You know how blind people will develop really good hearing or smell, or both?”
She paused, taking a bite of her food before continuing. ”Well, my power developed differently, too. I learn faster than a lot of my fellow students, and I can see with my power.” She didn't go into detail mostly because she figured he'd ask her about it eventually. Most everyone she told that did. They thought it extremely interesting that she got something no one else did. Some disliked her for it, but not very many. ”Anyway, I'm the go-to girl for my grade and lower when wind students want help with their power. Not that I can necessarily help, but they've gotten that idea.”
She actually laughed when he said that about the teacher. While normally that was not her style, she couldn't help but feel a little bitter at the teacher who'd punish her for not following orders written out on the board. Didn't even give a thought to the fact that she couldn't read. Took two full days for that mistake to be rectified. Elaine smiled, amused. ”I'd heard Leaders were supposed to be rule followers.” She shrugged, ”I don't get detention that much, but then again I really can't do anything out of line without half the students in the school using it as an excuse to attack me.”
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Post by alexandre on May 31, 2011 17:17:09 GMT -5
* you're like an angel , BUT WITH BROKEN WINGS Alexandre grimaced when she mentioned how the teachers treated her, finding it a bit unfair that they weren't willing to accommodate for her disability. They didn't have to feel sorry for her or anything, but it would be nice if they acknowledged that she couldn't read their instructions. "That's rough," he said, shaking his head a little. "I'll be sure to tell you those sorts of things if the teacher forgets, in the classes we've got together at least." She was alright for a Wind elemental so Alexandre would have no problem doing something like that for her. He might have had a reputation as an asshole, but he clearly wasn't as bad as some of the other kids in the class that would rather laugh at her for getting into trouble rather than bail her out of the situation.
He didn't mind her frustration as others might have--all things considered, his temperament was probably worse. In the Fire dormitories you got the more mild-mannered folk that just got angry with good reason, and then you got the extremes. Alexandre thankfully didn't belong to the latter group but knew several that did and even he tried not to rub them the wrong way. Even though the lot of them got along quite well for the most part, sticking a bunch of teenagers sporting anger issues in a room together... yeah, it didn't always go as planned. He'd already had to break up a fight using his authority and school had barely begun.
"I've lost control of my powers in class a couple of times," he remembered, wincing slightly at the memory. "Nearly got expelled the one time... stupid Water kid drenched my stuff for a joke and I might have..." He trailed off for a moment and gave an awkward cough, messing up the back of his inky hair, "uh, I may have went off on him." Oh, the Water student was fine of course. That was what the infirmary was for. The elementals could heal that which they had inflicted--one of the professors aligned with the Fire element had cleared the second degree burns up no problem. But Alex had been given a tidy suspension and a threat of actual expulsion if he did anything like that again. Needless to say, his parents had not been very pleased with him.
Apparently the Wind students ignored Elaine's presence--Alexandre wondered briefly whether this was because she was blind, or whether it was just because of the fact that this was the Wind element. It was diverse as it was unaligned. Fire and Thunder had been allies for what seemed like forever, Water and Earth had taken up sides to retaliate. But Wind? They were all so different that they tended to go their own way whenever tensions got high. It was good in that you could side with your friends, but it made the element as a whole quite vulnerable to attack. He didn't envy them the feeling. "Yeah," he said when she mentioned blindness and adaptions.
She went on to explain how her power had also adapted to the disability, just as any of the other senses would. "Bet there's a lot of jealousy, huh?" Really, why the fuck would you be stupid enough to envy her? Sure, you might pick things up a tad quicker because you were so used to using the element to help you get around, but the fact that you had to use it all day long was bad enough! "Couple of Fire kids--myself not included--are a little quicker at learning than everyone else, but I don't think I've ever heard of anything like you've got." Then again, as far as he knew they didn't have any blind folks in Fire. A deaf guy, but he spoke in sign language and had his twin sister translate for him. She was also in the Fire element, so it wasn't too much of a hassle.
"We are," Alexandre agreed, then smirked mischievously, "supposed to be." His bluish eyes were sparkling with amusement, his tone laced with it as well. "I think the correct thing to say is that we're supposed to avoid being busted," he laughed. "I'm usually pretty good at that--it was kinda dumb to bug that kid right in the middle of the hallway, but the look he gave me--ugh, I couldn't stand it!" Out of reflex alone he banged his hand on the table slightly, then looked at it in surprise. He hadn't meant to do that, but that was what happened with he and his anger. At least he didn't go around punching people when the least worries irked him. "Sorry about that," he said. "The Water students like to see how far they can push us; it gets annoying after so many years." He shook his head with a bit of a scowl, then pushed it to the back of his mind and forced his energetic attitude to return.
"D'you plan on going to college here when you graduate?" he asked, watching as a couple of college students exited--one of them playfully shoved their friend into the doorframe, laughing. "I think I might, but I dunno. I'm not really all that fond of all the work we get, but I don't know what else I'd do."
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Post by marci on Jun 1, 2011 9:20:28 GMT -5
Her head tilted, angling a little bit toward him as she adopted a ponderous look. Her mouth closed quickly, all frustration dissipated by the offer he presented. It actually did surprise her that he said that. The more the thought about it, the more she understood how he took it for granted; it wasn't a very difficult thing to do. Funny how in all her time here, no one else had taken the time to offer her that. She'd gotten into a ceaseless habit of being late to every class but the first because she needed to get the teacher to tell her what she needed to to. Well, not always late.
His next words brought a little burst of laughter. She stifled it quickly, but the delighted smile on her face would not go away. Knowing he was very likely to take it the wrong way, she waved a hand in front of her face and said, ”Might have killed him, right? He may not have deserved that, quite, but any pain on his part was earned. I remember the day I realized exactly how...tender you guys are. That was perhaps the most amused and guilty I've ever felt in my entire life.” She didn't think he'd feel anything other than sympathetic pain if she actually told him, but it was along the lines of using her wind to add force to a punch. Guy didn't get up for fifteen minutes.
Alex didn't seem all that interested in her powers, which she found relieving. Normally, if it was a wind student, the revelation was followed by forced hours of trying to get the other student to be able to do it. Which invariably failed. She'd been hopeful the first few times that she'd be able to help make the wind students a little more powerful, but it never worked. She was the only person who could do it, and it would very likely stay that way.
”Jealousy?” She smirked, detecting a bit of disbelief in his voice. Apparently he didn't think it was a fair trade-off. Not being able to see for seeing with your power and quicker learning? Granted, the quicker learning wasn't anything extreme. She wasn't grades ahead or anything. Just...innovative. Many many things could be done by manipulating wind. ”The fact is, they're only jealous when I get into a scuffle. All I have to do is cause a little movement in the air all around me and I can quite literally see in all directions at once. It surprises people, because I don't tend to use my power often the rest of the time. Just get around like any other...blind girl.” She stuck her tongue out for a second, pushing her tray away from her then sighing.
It wasn't that big of a deal. She could barely remember a thing from before she lost her sight, so it wasn't like she really knew what she was missing. It was just that the immature rabble took it upon themselves to point out the disability in as many glaring ways as they possibly could. Got on her nerves.
Alex had a bit of a fit, but Elaine didn't mind. She understood completely, equating it to every single student who'd picked on her for the past two years. She didn't exactly know about the look, because she probably got about ten of those looks a day without realizing it, but she understood. When he slammed his fist on the table, she jumped a little, but managed to resist the urge to feel about her with her hands, as she normally did when she wanted to find the source of the sound. Barely. As a result, she sat a little rigid for awhile and had a hard expression on her face.
She opened her mouth to respond to that, but he continued too fast. This time, all the anger removed—forcibly, she heard—and talking about college. This guy was going to make her dizzy. She took a deep breath and let a light breeze pull the tray to the end of the table closest to the drop off shelves. ”Never gave it too much thought. I rely on my power more than others, so yes, probably. The fact is, the more powerful I get, the better I can see.”
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Post by alexandre on Jun 1, 2011 9:54:37 GMT -5
* you're like an angel , BUT WITH BROKEN WINGS Alexandre thought about that for a moment, then chuckled to dispel the moment of anger he'd felt. He was already over the temporary burst of rage. His anger didn't usually stay constant unless there was a really good reason for it and seeing as this was already over and done with, it was more of a residual rage. "Well I don't think I'd have killed him," he said thoughtfully, then shrugged a little. "But I probably would have done a lot worse than I did if the professor hadn't decided to freaking electrocute me." That had been one of the most unpleasant experiences he'd ever had. When the kids got out of hand right there in the classroom, the professors were stuck using whatever means they had to break up the fighting. If your element was either stronger than or the same as the one of the aggressor, it was usually easy enough to just negate or erase the power. But seeing as Thunder had a slight weakness to Fire... Alexandre had woken up in the infirmary several hours later from being knocked out cold.
"He didn't have to do it that hard," the teenager huffed in mild irritation, remembering. "I mean, yeah, I get why he did it and everything but he's older than I am, and he went to college. It was like being struck by lightning five times over, except without the obvious 'dying' bit." The experience had certainly worked out well in the professors favour, considering Alexandre was a little too freaked out around him to disrupt his classes with the usual energetic chatter he kept up with his friends. A couple of his friends made fun of him for his rigid silences until he dared them to get the guy that riled up, which--to laughter from their friends in Thunder who knew exactly how much it had probably hurt--shut them up pretty quick.
"What'd you do?" he asked after a pause, revealing that while he'd went off on another little rant for a moment he had still remembered what Elaine was saying about the 'tenderness' of the Fire element. Then he chuckled a little. "Did some of the guys--or girls?--come after you? Afterwards, like?" He knew that invoking the wrath of one Fire student sometimes meant being attacked by a group of them. This was usually more so in the case of a freshman being terribly outmatched by someone older than they were. Wanting to show others exactly how it felt to be the weaker number, they'd form a group and come after you.
Alex could definitely see why that would be helpful in a fight--one of the easiest tactics involving the element of surprise was to sneak up and attack your opponent from behind. It was a tad dishonourable, but when it came to Alexandre he would do anything to keep himself from being the losing party. He'd used some pretty nasty tricks in his days to gain the upper-hand. But hell, if you picked a fight with a Fire student you should know what you're getting into. They didn't brag that they were honourable, after all. When it came to schoolwide fights, Water and Fire were usually the aggressors, whereas Thunder and Earth just jumped in to aide their respective allies when things got a little out of hand.
Bluish eyes watched the tray as it slid to the end of the table, slightly amused by the move. Most of the students did little tricks like that with their powers. Thunder students caused blackouts to freak everyone out, Fire students were walking furnaces in the winter, Earth students had natural green thumbs and the like. Her answer to his question made a lot of sense, so he didn't ask her to expand on her reasoning. "Good point," was all he said. "I'm not going to an actual college unless it's for music, so I might just attend for the hell of it, really." Why not?
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Post by marci on Jun 1, 2011 10:31:56 GMT -5
”Hm....” She smiled, a little amused despite herself. She'd caused a tornado in a water teacher's room, meaning all he'd had to do to get her attention was squirt a little water in her face, breaking her concentration. Harder than it sounded, actually, considering the hurricane strength winds that had been whipping everything around and away from her, but, like Alex said, the teachers had a little more training than the students. The entire class was drenched by the time she was done, though. Oh, she did like this school....
When he asked her what she'd done, she grinned mischievously but didn't answer immediately. Her hands found the edge of the table, preparing to push her away from it, and she bit her lip for a couple seconds, preparing what she was about to say. Then she tilted her head and turned her blind eyes on Alexandre. ”Well, I learned a trick last year, when one of my teachers talked about air pressure and the like. It's....here.” She smiled, ”I'll just show you.”
She moved a hand out toward the middle of the table, fingers trailing along the top. Then she raised her hand about a foot higher and balled it into a fist. Her brow furrowed as she pulled air toward the top of the fist, compressing it until it took a considerable effort to keep it all there. She sicked in a deep breath, held it for a second, then released. At the same time, she released the air and the force slammed her fist against the tabletop with a very hefty bang. The empty juice bottle on her tray, all the way at the end of the table, fell over.
She pulled her hand back toward her, ”Obviously, I didn't want to damage the table, so I didn't use as much force as I did with the kid I hit. It's also easier the quicker I do it and the more riled up I get.” She shrugged, ”Like when people feel stronger in a crisis. Anyway, a fire kid got in my face last year with two of his friends, and I was already angry, so.... Well, I pressure punched him in the nuts.”
Hardly delicate, but it was the only way to explain it. It was right before the last class of the day, and it had been a very bad day for her. So angry her, who didn't want detention for being absent, punched the one guy and slammed the other two against the other end of the hallway. They were too stunned to turn her in immediately. It wasn't until two days later that a teacher confronted her about it, and she got off easy because there was an earth student who swore Elaine hadn't been the aggressor. Just thinking about that made her smile.
”Well, needless to say, all the people who came after me were girls, and I was exhausted from constantly using my wind sight a month later. They eventually got me back, but I still think it was worth it.”
She pushed her chair away from the table, standing carefully as Alex talked about college. She was only mildly interested until he mentioned music, and then all her interest was invested. She basically lit up, smiling past him. ”Really? What do you play? I've played piano, violin, and guitar since I was five, and I've had some vocal training. But I had to leave my instruments behind when I came here.” Well, they'd been Celia's instruments. She knew that the music department had many instruments stocked, but she didn't think it was the same.
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Post by alexandre on Jun 1, 2011 11:27:12 GMT -5
* you're like an angel , BUT WITH BROKEN WINGS Alexandre was appropriately curious as to what she'd done to the boy in his element, so he watched with interest as she offered to demonstrate. He felt the air cool slightly as she applied the pressure of her element to her hand--then it was his turn to jump when she banged the table with a lot more force than he'd been expecting. He recovered quickly though, chuckling a bit with the amusement. "That's neat," he said sincerely. He may have been a Fire student but he did think it was kind of cool how all of the different elements had their own tricks and trademarks. One of the best Fire elemental tactics was to heat up the room or immediate area you were fighting in. The intense heat tired your opponent out quicker. But it was a move that had to be used carefully and sparingly--the constant drain on your own energy could backfire if you weren't careful. All the same, he'd used it to gain the upper hand in a few fights he'd been in. It was easiest with the Earth students, who were already sensitive to his power.
The moment she mentioned slamming the guy in the nuts with her fist, Alexandre dissolved into a fit of laughter, obviously amused by the mental image. There were tears of mirth pricking the corners of his eyes as he recovered, and he wiped them away before chortling, "Ha, the sorry bastard!" Yeah, so whilst he was friends with most of the Fire students... a laugh at their expense was never out of the question. They'd laughed at him when he'd been electrocuted, after all--as far as he was concerned, they were all fair game. "Ah, that's great." He was still chuckling slightly, red-faced from his laughter. It was probably twice as funny as it might have been to anyone else because he was a guy, and it wasn't as if he'd never taken a hit where it hurt before. And damn did it ever hurt. "Idiot'll be sorry when he figures out he can't have kids ten years from now," he said, grinning. "Bet he deserved it more than he says to the rest of us, too." The 'rest of them' being his element, of course. He was surprised he hadn't heard that story before, but then again... considering it had been a bit of a failure on the Fire students part reliving it probably wasn't the most fun experience.
See, while Alex was the fire leader and thus supposed to target anyone who was a threat to his element, he understood politics. If you got what was coming to you, the leaders didn't have to act. They had been the ones to get all up in Elaine's face (and being a Fire student himself he whole-heartedly believed that Elaine was telling the truth) so he'd deserved the punch, even if she could have avoided that particular area.
"We do have some honour," he mused in fairness to the Fire students when she mentioned that they'd been girls who'd came after her. It's not like the element would sic a bunch of muscular guys on a single girl. "Not much," he amended with another mild chuckle, "but some." The Thunder element were not quite so courteous. It took a little bit more than an insult to rile up a Thunder student, but if you did provoke them enough to come after you, it was never a good thing. They generally attacked alone or with one other friend, seeing as their element was not quite as unified as that of Fire. But they hit hard. Their tempers were slower to burn but quicker to destroy, the way Alex saw it. He was just glad they were not only allied, but that Fire had the advantage.
She seemed surprisingly interested when he mentioned music--not an unwelcome discovery on his part. He adored music and talking about music, so the grin he gave was easy as the rest of his anger immediately evaporated. "I play a lot of instruments too," he said. "My parents are both in the business so I guess growing up around it had that kind of influence. Guitar, bass, drums, piano... my Dad always said it was best to know my way around the lot if I ever wanted to get into a band of some sort 'cause the position I'd want wouldn't always be open." He grinned a little. Alex definitely preferred the idea of becoming a rockstar in a band as opposed to going to school for the next eleven years after graduation to get some job as a doctor or a scientist or something. School bored him, music did not. "I can't play violin though--is it hard?" He'd never tried. "I brought a couple guitars and my bass with me to school, but it's not quite as easy to lug a piano or a drum kit through the doors." He laughed at the thought.
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Post by marci on Jun 1, 2011 13:37:12 GMT -5
Elaine's nose crinkled as Alex went into a fit of laughter, a bit of self-conscious gaiety blossoming into her expression. She ducked her head, as if to hide the grin. But it wouldn't work very well, considering she was standing, leaning over just slightly to keep her hands on the table. It was like an anchor, to let her know which way to go when she finally decided to leave the mess. Regardless, she was completely unused to this kind of reaction from random acquaintances, and even though she liked it, the slightest bit of shyness was creeping up on her. She wasn't used to this.
At the same time, it would be rather helpful to make a friend of the fire leader. Not only would it probably help with many of the fire kids messing with her, she'd have some sort of fall back whenever something happened with the water kids, with whom she had almost as much trouble. When he said that he thought the guy deserved what she did, she nodded mutely. Though she wouldn't hesitate to say that she'd been messed with, she didn't want to mention that it had been a rather...uncomfortable sort of messing. Flattering—she'd never thought before that she might be attractive—but highly uncomfortable. That's why the punishment seemed poetic to her.
”Mmm....honor.” She laughed, ”I'm sure some of you do, but I think I just intimidated the boys for awhile.” At least, that had been how she'd figured it. It was possible that they'd also thought if overkill to send a bunch of big strong guys after a single blind girl. Now that she thought about it it did seem like a sick thing to do. To be honest that hadn't entered into her calculations before.
She was able to calm herself when he started talking about music, the discomfort easing itself out of her demeanor as she began to talk about such an easy subject. When he mention wishing to join a band, her interest was piqued. ”Are you in one? Or are you just waiting around for other people to get in gear?” She'd never much thought about joining a band. She wrote music, and played very well. She liked playing electric violin, which applied itself to many more genres than acoustic did. But she didn't know how fun it would be to try and mesh such a passion with the differing tastes of others. ”Violin is the hardest to learn, but definitely the one I enjoy the most. It took forever for me to judge to placements of the notes, because the stem doesn't have any frets with which to feel....”
Her face light up with delight when he mentioned he'd brought his own instruments to the school. She couldn't help it. Odds are they would be in better condition than the music room instruments. ”Really? Are they nice? I've spent hours playing the school's instruments, but they aren't as nice as the ones I had at home. Still, gotta practice. I was interested in playing drums, once, but....” She brought a hand up to touch an ear lightly, ”It's never comfortable.”
She then realized that she was just standing there awkwardly, halfway between sitting again and leaving the hall. She bit her lip for a second, then addressed him hesitantly, ”Do you...think you could help me out of here? This is the most annoying room in the entire school, and I'm not entirely sure how much time we have before next period.”
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Post by alexandre on Jun 1, 2011 14:10:36 GMT -5
* you're like an angel , BUT WITH BROKEN WINGS Alexandre noticed that Elaine seemed a little bashful when he went into his random fit of laughter, but that wasn't a bad thing. Alex wasn't in the least bit shy himself, however. Hell, he could probably hold a conversation with a stop sign if he was bored enough. Given that he was a popular guy that was easily accepted into most social situations, he didn't stop to think about whether someone else would be receptive to his chatter. He just... talked. Oh, he could take a hint if someone glared at him or outright asked him to stop (though he may keep going just to spite someone being rude about it). Alex was just naturally outgoing. He supposed it was his mother's side of the gene pool talking. He was a prankster and a chatterbox like half of the Water students, but at the same time he had the arrogance and temperament of his father, a Fire elemental.
Alex thought about that, then nodded in mild agreement. "I don't suppose I'd go near you if you did that to me, not for a while at least," he chuckled. But of course, Alexandre also wouldn't have taken advantage of her disability to get a look or anything like that, he wasn't as much of a pervert as most girls seemed to assume men were. Oh, he could gauge attractiveness and he was definitely attracted to girls, but he didn't pursue people or hit on them. That was a one-way ticket to getting yourself slapped in the face... or, in Elaine's case, punched in the junk.
But it had a downside, too. Since he wasn't the flirting type of guy and he usually just stayed away from anything to do with romance, Alexandre'd never had a girlfriend before. Nor had he ever been intimate with anyone. Of course at only seventeen that wasn't a substantial age to begin worrying about those sorts of things, but he always felt awkward when the other guys would talk about the girls they'd slept with. He was great at bullshitting them all and playing pretend, but it embarrassed him. It was perhaps a good thing that Elaine hadn't brought that up, seeing as it would have become immediately awkward for both of them.
He chuckled lightly when he asked if she was in a band. "Nah," he said. "I mean it's definitely what I want to do with my life and all, I know that, the opportunity just hasn't, well, knocked yet." He snorted slightly at the joke. "Geez, that was terrible. I'm losing my flavour." Alex could be a funny guy sometimes but it was clearly too early in the day for him to be making any sort of jokes. "But yeah--I guess I'm just waiting around, like you said." She mentioned how the violin was the favourite, even though it had been the hardest for her to learn to play. "You must have an amazing ear for music," he realised, and it was meant as a compliment more than anything else. He had respect for someone with that much dedication and patience.
A proud grin adorned his features. "I'd like to think they are," he said with an eager nod. "My acoustic's an older one my Dad gave me to mess around with and learn on, but my electrics and the bass are all mine." She'd mentioned that she wasn't really fond of the school instruments, and with that Alexandre sympathised. He didn't like them either. "I know what you mean," he said. "That's why I brought my guitars here... I was gunna leave them at home but I don't really like the school's stuff, it's not the same." He got an idea and his expression brightened slightly. "I could let you play them some time," he offered. "I mean no one is allowed in the Fire dormitories but I don't mind bringing them out if it's a nice day and all. I take real good care of them 'cause my Dad swears he's not buying me any new ones if I damage them." His laugh was light with amusement.
He didn't hesitate when she asked him, just smiled. "Sure," he said, then glanced at the clock and cursed. "Apparently less time than I thought, the bell's about to--" And it's obnoxious clanging interrupted him at that moment, drowning him out. Rather than your typical school bells in modern buildings, the Academy had a bell tower. You could hear it ringing from all the way over by the forest, it's loud clangs permeating the still air. "... ring," he finished lamely, then chuckled. "I think we've got our next class together anyway, now that I think about it," he mused. "It's this way."
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Post by marci on Jun 1, 2011 14:43:14 GMT -5
The girl shrugged a little, smiling at him, ”That's always how it goes. I would have been surprised to hear there was a working band in the midst of all this school's....strife. Doesn't seem like there'd be much chance you could find that many people who could both play that many things and keep from killing each other here.” The though was amusing. What if they couldn't find a good drummer, and the only person available was a water student. That wouldn't work. Or maybe the only lead vocals that would work was going to be a fire student who got wrathful at the drop of a hat. Not that great either. Then again, Elaine and Alex seemed to get along well enough, and they were both musicians.
”Must I?” She said, brow raised from his compliment, ”I didn't think so at the time. It took months and months of practice and heaps of encouragement from my teacher. Try hard enough at something and you'll pick it up eventually.” What she didn't say was that if she hadn't tried hard at violin, she would likely have tried hard at something far more life threatening. She'd only felt sane when she was working hard back then. It was worth it, and it helped her learn everything else. ”Thank you, though.”
Alex's offer was met with a rapturous grin. ”I'd love that. It would be really wonderful to play a proper instrument again. And you don't have to worry about me hurting anything. I've always been careful with music.” She didn't think it odd that his father wouldn't want to replace anything Alex broke. The way he talked about them, it sounded as it they were good quality, and good quality instruments were a bane on the wallet. Her own father once told her that if she pressured him into getting her a nice violin he'd never hear the end of it from his bank.
It was a relief when he said he would help her, though something in that back of her mind told her incessantly that all he met to do was lever her over a table or something. Damn that mistrust she'd learned. Many other student would do that, she knew, but it didn't seem like Alex was the type. So far he'd been much nicer that he needed to be. The bell tolled, setting her ears to ringing for a couple seconds. Then she pushed her chair back under the table and took a step toward where she knew the door to be. She waited there, since Alex had not yet actually stood up yet.
”Oh? What class is that?” She said, her tone revealing that it was a test to make sure he was right about them sharing the next class.
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Post by alexandre on Jun 1, 2011 15:55:51 GMT -5
* you're like an angel , BUT WITH BROKEN WINGS Alexandre laughed easily at the thought of a band being at each others throats constantly. "That's true--I never thought of it that way." He had just sub-consciously kept his search amongst friends and had never taken notice of the other gifted musicians that might be in elements opposite his own. It would really suck to find someone a virtuoso with a natural hatred of yourself and the element which you controlled. Sometimes there were some awesome people in the Academy that you just couldn't get to know on a personal level because of politics and predisposed hatreds. It was sad, really, but Alex didn't think on it much. He was so used to the Fire element and their tendency to get along with only certain types that it was second-nature to him now. He supposed it was different for someone like Elaine--the Wind students were really accepted into any of the social groups given their diversity. People got to know Wind elementals before they decided they liked them or not. Such was not the same for all the rest.
"Either way, your patience is admirable," Alexandre concluded with a bit of a smile. "I tend to lose mine really easily... I guess it's because of the whole 'Fire student' thing or whatever, but I can't focus on something for long periods of time." Like school. He was pretty sure he didn't have ADHD or anything like that (though he'd never been tested for it) but he was just so energetic that he didn't enjoy focusing on one project for an extended period of time. He tended to have a load of assignments at once, preferring to switch between them every now and then as opposed to sitting down and tackling them one by one. Alex was an odd kid. "I really only tried hard with music because I thought my Dad's band was so cool," he recalled with a laugh. "They used to come over to the house and hang out some weekends, jam out in our basement and stuff. Mom used to always complain that we'd get headaches but I really liked it, so my Dad started teaching me how to play."
As he stood up from the table he noticed one of his friends--Derek, Thunder elemental, twelfth grade--leaning on the wall by the door and watching him expectantly. The boy (who was the same age as Alex and who had simply not failed a grade yet) jerked his hand in a lazy wave, but Alex gave a small shake of his head. He had made a promise that he was going to stick to--plus, he didn't want to make it awkward for Elaine by inviting his large group of friends to hang out with them. Hell, some of them were probably the aggressors responsible for teasing her and trying to take advantage of her disability. I'll have to put a stop to that, he decided with conviction. Alexandre was good to people whom he liked and considered potential friends. He couldn't outright call her a friend yet--they'd only just became acquainted--but he'd certainly continue to talk to her. She was an interesting person.
"English," he replied, then frowned slightly. "At least I think so. I recognise your name from role call now that I think about it, but it could be for a different class. I just pay more attention in English because the professor seems to like switching the order they call the names in to throw everything off." He shook his head and scowled as if this irritated him (which it did). "I mean since my last name is in the B's it's pretty easy to just pay attention until my name is called and then go back to talking or whatever but I think they do it just to spite us all." He paused in his long-winded ramble. "So do you have English next?" Nevertheless he started moving toward the door, though he kept his gaze on her out of habit considering they were having a conversation and all.
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