Calm Before The Storm...[Evan]

[Marie DeLabou]

The air was still. Perhaps the tourists that were walking around in groups or pairs were creating a few ripples in the stillness as they moved, looking around with wonder at the lush green vegetation, or even sitting on the grass, ignoring the biting chill that seeped through their clothing from the slightly damp dew still on the grass. It was early morning, early Sunday morning, but still, people were commonly walking through to just look around. Tourists who had spent the night in one of the nearby classy hotels, to wake up only wanting to see more of the city. And then there was her.

The girl was sat on the grass, a coat neatly folded beneath her to block out the dampness of the grass. She didn't want to ruin the expensive, pale blue dress she was wearing, after all. Her legs were neatly curled beneath her, and she was leant back against the trunk of the large spreading beech tree, a book open and propped on her lap. She was lost in the words, one hand twirling a strand of lush brown hair through her fingers, and at peace. The air was only moving here, it seemed, like soft fingers reassuringly stroking her cheek. She was calm.

Marie DeLabou had lost track of how many days she would sit here, alone, with only the words and the feel of the breeze brushing against her to keep her company. It wasn't the only activity she would do with her time, now, but whenever her mother looked up from her grief, and inquired after her day, she didn't think admitting that she was experimenting with flying was a very good answer. No, that would make her mother worry about her, and she couldn't do that. The house was empty enough, and the feelings were dark enough without the bright light her father had admitted, to add worry to the heaviness.

She lowered her book after a moment, marking her page and placing it neatly to one side. Reading was all very well, but she'd come here to do work mainly. Working here was the only place she could work now. Home...no, not at home. And school...at school, if she tried to work, she'd end up with gum in her hair, or a note on her back, and nothing would get done. So she always brought her work stuff with her, to her spot in the park.

Marie rearranged herself on the coat, to relieve the slightly aching feeling in her legs. She brushed her manicured nails down the top of her dress, making sure any crinkles were removed. No one could see her, perhaps, but no...she had to look neat. She'd always been neat...and didn't really think she culd help it anymore. A yawn was stifled with the palm of her hand, before she pulled her bag towards her. Opening it, she was about to pull her maths textbook out, when she paused. And blinked. A change in the air...she'd felt it, but she kept feeling things like that, didn't she? Changes in the air...showing someone was coming near.

But no one would see her here, would they?

[Evan Summers]

Early morning weren't all too uncommon for Evan. That's not to say that he liked them, but sometimes - especially now - Evan often had to do things he wasn't best pleased doing. Most of his early morning wakings were simply because of school work - early lectures, tutoring sessions. Sometimes if he was going to stay at his parents for a bit or something as well, he would get up early so that he could get there with plenty of time to spare, and the whole day to himself. Today though, it was nothing like that. He'd simply woken up and - feeling a little stuffy and wishing for some distraction - he'd headed out on a walk. And of course, the only place for a walk in the city of London was Greenwich park. Well, not the only place - that was a figure of speech. It was a very nice place to go a-wandering though, the lush green scenery and small furry mammals scurrying about making it highly contrasted to the rest of the city, the long-stretched urban jungle that sprawled out for miles.

The park was huge, and it was quite a coincidence that Evan should have been walking through the very same part of the park that Marie was sitting in, through the rows of old beech trees and a narrow tarmac path that led through the centre. The trail led up the hill (it was a long way) winding eventually upwards to the meridian itself, the centre of time, and the exact starting point of the GMT. Evan had been up there a few times himself, many times in fact. He found it fascinating - the whole time zone thing. Mind boggling. Anyhow, that wasn't what he was here for right now anyway - he just wanted to walk.

Making his way across the grass, he watched and listened to the tourists buzzing around him. They were quieter than usual, though no doubt they would get louder again as the day progressed. They always did. He wandered through them, obviously not one of them. As he walked through, he noticed a slight change in the weather. It probably meant nothing though. Hey, this was England - known for unpredictable weather. Or was it boring? Or just talking about it a lot? One of those three, anyway. Whatever the stereotype was, the weather didn't matter. it was still perfectly pleasant, with a nice chill in the air and the lightest of dews forming on the blades of the feathery grass beneath his feet.

He hadn't noticed anyone sitting down until he saw Marie though. There were benches of course, but the morning chill had cooled the water vapour in the air, leaving damp droplets dripping down the metal plaque that held the generic name for whom that bench was a memorial of. This girl was sitting down - under one of the large trees. She appeared to be working. Schoolwork, perhaps? She certainly looked a few years his junior, so perhaps it was something like that. Why would she do that here though, especially in the morning? When he was her age he slept in the mornings. He wished he still did sleep in the mornings.

Admittedly, he was a little curious about what she was doing.

Normal people didn't just go up and speak to strangers though, especially when they were a good few years younger, and clearly busy.

But Evan was weird like that, and he did it anyway. Because that's how he rolled.

"Morning," he said with a grin, planting himself on a bench close to where she was sat under the tree. It was a few meters away, and admittedly a little wet, but he didn't have a big coat to sit on the ground, and didn't want to get his rear end wet - so this was the next best option, even if it was a bit far for a proper conversation. "This could sound weird, but what are you doing?" he asked. He didn't mean for it to sound rude or anything - he was genuinely and simply curious.

OOC;; I just remembered Emma Watson and Logan Lerman will be in a film together xD im looking forward to that.

[Marie DeLabou]

OOC;; Oh, are they? That sounds pretty cool, will have to look out for it. They are both brilliant xP

For a moment Marie considered whether she’d imagined the shift in the air. It wouldn’t have been impossible for her to do that. The air and the world around her did strange things when she didn’t realise it, quite often...so it quite easily could have been. No one usually came over here and disturbed her. She was the girl others avoided unless they wanted someone to pick on. She was the loner posh girl that was never approached with anything other than malicious intent in mind. She was used to it.

But then the voice addressing her tore that option away, and she jumped a little in surprise. So...she hadn’t been imagining it. Or perhaps it had just been a coincidence, that little feeling that had warned her of the approaching human. But no, Marie didn’t believe in coincidence. Everything had a reason, that was the logical thing to say, and logic was something she could bury herself in when everything else got too hard.

She lifted her head, her hair falling away from her face so she could look at the person, the boy, who had addressed her. Addressed her in quite a rude manner, if she was honest with herself, though she wasn’t sure whether he’d meant it or not. Marie didn’t know how to tell whether other people her age (or older, in this case of this boy, from looks alone) meant things they said. She was the loner, after all, no matter how hard she’d tried.

“H-hello?” she murmered slightly, unsure whether to respond with a statement or a question. She was polite though, of course, she was always polite. Unless she was angry...and then there was thunder and lightening and other things that couldn’t be called anything other than magic. “I’m just...reading. Well, not really, doing homework, to be exact, but...well, there’s reading involved.”

She was wary of saying anything more though. She’d never seen him before, but that didn’t mean anything. Marie didn’t like being picked on, didn’t like being made to feel like she was nothing, although...well, it could easily be argued that nothing was exactly what the teenager was. To her peers, most certainly, and she must have done something to warrant that reaction from them. So even if he wasn’t a bully, how was she to know whether she’d make the same mistake again?

A faint breeze rippled through the grass, seeming to fan out from around her, lifting her hair to brush it lightly against her face. She was soothed by that, soothed by the cool breezes fingers as they danced over her skin, and calmed slightly. She couldn’t think properly when she was wondering what she was meant to do.

“Who...are you?” As she’d said, she couldn’t remember seeing him before. And...well, it had to be uncomfortable sitting on a bench as wet as that. Dew made things wet though, and dew was beyond her control. If it wasn’t, the grass around her would be dry right now, and she could enjoy the feel of those soft blades as well as the touches from the air.

[Evan Summers]

OOC: yeah :3 the perks of being a wallflower

The girl - whoever she was - seemed a bit uncomfortable. Evan couldn't have guessed why, though to nearly anyone else it would have been blatantly obvious that she wasn't best pleased that he (a total stranger, i'll remind you) had approached her, and somewhat rudely started asking her what she was doing. He'd gotten an answer now though, so that whetted his curiosity a little. He'd been right - it was homework! Which meant she was definitely still at school. Right again - man, he wasn't doing too badly at all today, was he? Smiling, Evan nodded to himself a little.

"Oh, Uh—I'm Evan!" he said, then paused for a moment and looked her up and down, listening to her accent. It was definitely english, but there was perhaps a lilt of something else in there. He couldn't tell what. He was about to ask whether she was around here, but stopped himself in time. Of course she was, if she was doing her homework. Nobody took homework on holiday, so she must have lived in London. Strange that she would come out here so early in the morning to do this, though.

"Why're you doing it here?" he asked, interested. Perhaps he was asking too many questions (this possibility was just starting to cotton on to Evan, and he immediately became a little worried)

"Sorry for bothering you, by the way.." he followed up, somewhat quieter than the other things he'd said, the questions that he had asked. "You just looked.. interesting, and i wanted to know what you were doing," he told her, trying to choose his words carefully so that he didn't make a fool of himself or something. It was relatively early, and he still wasn't quite thinking as straight as he might have been later on in the day. He wondered if she was angry, or annoyed or something, and tried to smile slightly. He didn't want to get too emotional - angry or otherwise - something stupid might happen.

A calming breeze was spreading around, and although Evan could feel the chill on his face, and it was beautifully refreshing and zesty, something told him that it wasn't anything to do with him. The wind glided past him as gracefully as a swan, but it seemed to wrap itself around the beech under which the girl was sitting, leaves on the ground rustling and twirling around in a ritual dance around the beech. It was strange, really.

"What about you—Uh, what's your name that is," he asked slowly, unsure as he watched the breeze rippling through the trees and the leaves. Nature wasn't so much his thing. It wasn't that he didn't like nature, but more that he knew if he got out of control, this whole place would burn. And he didn't want that, he loved the park. The beauty of it should never be destroyed, especially by him.

"Strange.." he noted to himself quietly, thinking of course of that circling breeze. Looking away, he saw that not so far away that there was little wind at all. It was just here.

[Marie DeLabou]

OOC;; Yep, will definately have to look out for it. xP

Marie was uncomfortable. Being approached by a stranger did little to make her feel worthwhile, because that was what always happened. Someone would approach, and then names would be called, mud would be flung, or something else to make her feel like nothing would be started. But the breeze was calming, and he hadn’t done anything other than talk, which was a little odd and rude, if she was honest with herself. Talking to strangers had never been something the teenager had been good at. At the hellhole she called school, everyone was a stranger and she could talk to no one. They all went around in groups, laughing and giggling and talking...and Marie had never done that. She didn’t know how to. The only time they were nice were when they had malicious intent, or when she was requested to do their homework for them. It was just easier to do it now, especially now. The homework in front of her, or half of it anyway, wasn’t even hers, but concentrating on helping someone else was better than being left to her thoughts alone. Because then she’d only think of him...

That was enough to make her want to cry already, and no, she couldn’t do that. She may not know how teenagers were supposed to behave, in a nice way, but crying in front of others had just left to more laughter on their part. So she sat up, a little straighter, clearing her throat to ease the lump there, and relaxing back into the dancing tendrils of the breeze that were invisible to the naked eye, but there, brushing over her skin in familiar, soothing patterns.

“I like to work outside..” she said softly. She didn’t like to lie, but that wasn’t the whole truth. It was more to do with the fact that she no longer liked to work inside. The only place she could work inside was at home, and that was full of ghosts and crying and darkness that seeped beneath the doors and wound itself around her heart. “And it’s peaceful this early.” She wasn’t sure why he was asking her questions. She was answering because it was polite to do so, and Marie had been raised to be polite and well mannered no matter what occurred. Was she meant to be asking him questions as well though? Her usually active mind went blank at that point, the faint stirrings of panic beginning to rise again, mimicked by the increased speed of the breeze.

But the his next words made her relax, once more. She didn’t know whether to be tense and expectant of jibes or harsh words or even harsher laughter, or relaxed and happy to be talking to someone nicely for a change. Humans weren’t like animals. Animals were simple. If you were nice to them they were nice back. With humans, Marie was always nice, if she could be, and yet they were the ones to bite the hardest. Some days she just wanted to bite back, to strike them down just to get them to leave her alone. Though that would be impolite, and then she’d be found out, and she didn’t want to think about what might happen then. Plus, it would all get rather messy, she was quite sure. But him...Evan...he was being nice. That was an almost foreign concept to the upper glass girl.

Interesting...No, she wasn’t interesting. She was posh, but dull, as she had always been told, and was sitting beneath a tree to work interesting anyway? She didn’t want to stop though, she liked it here. Here it was like she was locked away from the world, and the memories of her father’s smile or of the bullies laughter couldn’t reach her. But interesting...she couldn’t be. No one else had said she was anything more than nothing, not if they were her age, or thereabouts. “I hope you forgive me, but...I’m not interesting. I’m simply working,” she said quietly, but politely, correcting him.

“I’m Marie...” she continued, after a moments pause, trying to annotate his question to see if it had any hidden meaning. She did that a lot now, for all the good it did her. “Marie Sinclair DeLabou. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She continued quickly, but elegantly – the way of introducing herself had been ingrained into her by her fath...by her parents so long ago, when she was still a child. She wasn’t a child anymore, and yet she couldn’t introduce herself any other way. She cringed though, the sound of his mutter just wafting towards her. Strange. Yes, that was her. She was strange, and now he thought so too. She highly doubted he’d continue to be nice now he’d realised it, and she curled up slightly tighter, letting the breeze...no, now the wind, her shame of doing something wrong, again, had made it pick up even more...dance around her, brushing her hair out from her face. Of course she was letting it. In truth, Marie didn’t even notice that it was anything strange.

[Evan Summers]

Oh.. He'd upset her now, thought Evan to himself. He was usually quite good socially, but apparently this time not so much. He sighed, and looked at her sympathetically, trying to relate and understand what was wrong. he couldn't really tell, to be honest. He smiled, amused when she said it was peaceful this early. Not that peaceful. There was a tourists for a start, silent-ish for now, but still not belonging, ruining the peace of the park slightly. And then there was him approaching her. He wondered whether it had been a good idea to start talking to her at all - he must have completely shattered any peace she was finding in the park to do her homework.

Speaking of homework, she had quite a lot of it didn't she? School had always been tough for him, especially with his inability to concentrate for extended periods of time, but he certainly didn't remember getting that much homework, especially not all to be done at once. This probably wasn't the entirety of it either - he presumed she must have more at home or something. She seemed like a very bookish sort of person, but that wasn't bad.

"Looks like you get a lot of homework,"

[/color] he observed, looking over at all the stuff she was working on. He would have offered his own help, but he doubted it would be of any use to her. He probably didn't know the answers, and it seemed as if she knew what she was doing.

Evan actually laughed a little out loud this time - when she told him she was 'just working, not interesting' or along those lines. Everyone was interesting in some way. Even some really dull people could be interesting. And she certainly didn't look dull. Especially with a name like that.

"Wow, that's quite a fancy name," he commented, not trying to sound mean or anything. "See, of course you're interesting! You've got an interesting name for starters – is it french or something?"[/b] he wondered out loud. It certainly explained why she felt a little uncomfortable. Foreign country and all. She didn't sound french though.

"A pleasure to meet you to, my lady,"[/color] he joked, doing a little bow. He grinned at her, but stopped when he realised she looked hurt when he'd mumbled strange. She must have thought he meant her! Shaking his head rapidly, Evan spoke quickly, "Oh no no no! I didn't mean you, Marie. I was just thinking this wind - it's strange, look it's only really going around your tree there, and there's no wind anywhere else,"[/color] he said, hoping he'd fixed his mistake or something. It was a poor save, even if it did work - but it was the truth, he definitely hadn't meant Marie.

"I wonder what it is.."[/color]
[/blockquote][/sub]

[Marie DeLabou]

“I only don’t get much myself,” she said quietly, flattening the book she’d just realised she was still clutching on the coat to the side of her, “Mostly it’s other peoples.” Should she have said that? It was a bad thing, she knew, to be bullied into doing other peoples homework, and yet so many of them did it that she’d gotten used to it. No one had ever asked before, though, so she didn’t know whether you were meant to saying anything, or whether it was a secret meant to be kept until they all parted ways. Oh, how Marie couldn’t wait for that day. But homework was easy, anyway. After being home schooled by her father, a man who hated anything other than perfection and detested slacking of any kind, the homework her school provided was...monotonous, if anything. And boring. It was taught so slowly, for her.

She blinked, looking up at him as he laughed. That hadn’t sounded like a cruel laugh. More a friendly, joking laugh, a laugh that she heard amongst other people, in their own little groups. The corners of her mouth quirked upwards into a small smile as he did so. It sounded nice, a friendly laugh. Of course, he was still laughing at her, which made her feel rather odd, but that was something she’d grown used to. Walking down the corridor of a busy school building, with bright pink gum stuck to her hair gained that sort of attention, gained cruel taunts and words...

She should really stop thinking about that, if she was honest. That was not happenening now, and this...well, it was rare, so she should just be enjoying it. So she let the smile grow, just slightly, adding a tiny laugh at the sight of him bowing. That was also nice. No sneering or taunts. She flushed, just slightly, ducking her head as her cheeks were lightly tinted with a rosy pink, yet again stumped at what to say. “Yes, it’s French. My parents are...were...well, they’re French. Came here before I was born though.” A French name, and a lack of French accent. That wasn’t interesting, that was just strange.

Marie raised her head again though, at his words, a small line appearing between her eyebrows as she frowned. There was wind around her, yes, she could feel it dancing over her skin and smoothing down the planes of her pale blue dress, but wasn’t it everywhere else as well. She looked around the rest of the park, or what she could see of it, which wasn’t much, really. She always chose this spot because it was solitary, and seemed locked away from the rest of the world, even the rest of this park, after all. But no...only the branches of her tree seemed to be dancing to a silent music, the rustling of the leaves as they brushed past one another amplified in the surrounding silence. She hadn’t noticed. It just felt normal, to her, but looking around now.

Her eyes widened, just marginally. Oh no..No, not again. Was it her? Was it her making this tree move but the others stay still? It couldn’t be her...she couldn’t feel anything different, but...well, it had happened before. The wind picked up around her at the thought, swirling around her. And Evan had noticed. He’d been so nice as well, but this was another freaky thing about her, wasn’t it? She hadn’t realised it was so obvious...had other people noticed as well? She controlled the rising nausea with a slowly released breath, trying valiantly to push those unwelcome feelings back down.

“It’s just...odd weather, isn’t it?” she said quickly, ducking her head back down again, “After all, it appears to be changing so much now, after that rather odd storm...”

[Evan Summers]

Evan looked at her, a little confused. So she was doing other peoples homework? Why on god's good earth would she do that. From the hurt and oppressed demeanour that she seemed to have, he wondered if perhaps she wasn't being forced to do the homework of others. Ouch. Evan looked sympathetically, wondering if there was anything he could do about it.

"Why're you doing other peoples?"

[/b] he asked slowly, now realising that most of the homework sheets were all the same. "Doesn't the teacher realise it's all in your writing - and what about reading and stuff?" he asked, possibly taking it a little too far. Then again he'd never really understood the concept of doing other peoples homework. It was all to help them anyway, they'd just end up struggling more in tests and stuff. Still, that wasn't Marie's fault, so he couldn't really say anything about that.

He wondered why she seemed so hurt all the time. She must have had a pretty bad time at school a lot, and clearly her attitude of letting people walk all over her - doing their homework and such - wasn't helping a lot.

"You should stand up to them more," he said, though quickly should his head. "Sorry, that's easier said than done, ignore it," he told her. He was right. It was often very difficult to stand up to bullies. He'd never been bullied himself, but he knew about it and stuff. He was too fiery to get bullied, too tough. Like jerky - spicy beef jerky.

Aha, so her parents were french - that made sense. It explained the french name and why she didn't have a french accent.

"See, that's proper interesting - the closet i come to being foreign is a welsh grandfather,"[/b] he said, laughing at his own dullness. The conversation had however followed the inevitable and moved onto the storm. Evan wondered slowly whether she really knew how odd the storm had been, and whether she was referring just to the giant hailstones the size of people falling from the sky, or whether she knew something far more odd about it. Something that he knew all to well. Anticipation bubbled inside Evan and he felt a small tingling in his throat.

Evan closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Calm. Suppress the emotions and the fire would not come forth. Yes, that was better - calm. Breathing in the moist morning air, he soothed himself until the anticipation he'd felt was gone, and his throat was fine again.

"Yeah, the storm,"[/b] he said quietly. In actual fact, he hadn't noticed the weather being particularly peculiar since the storm. after that, it had very much gone back to normal. Nothing doing. It must have just been Marie's mind.

Evan didn't know how right he was, nor that it was in a different sense to which he was thinking.

"I didn't like that storm.."[/b] he said mumbled, glancing around, watching the tourists. There were more appearing now as the park got slightly busier. He wouldnt want any of them to hear what was going on. He wondered what the government knew of the storm. Did they realise what the storm had done to him, and were they keeping tabs on him even now? He had quite the imagination, but it wasn't altogether impossible.
[/blockquote][/sub]

[Marie DeLabou]

Marie ducker her head. “it’s just easier to,” she replied simply, coming up with no idea how else to say it. No, she knew it wasn’t a good thing, doing the homework given to other people, but she had been doing it for so long now it appeared normal, to her. And if she didn’t understand something, which was rare, admittedly, but if she didn’t, repeatedly doing the questions helped the knowledge to sink it. After all, it wasn’t as if it was easy to learn during lessons, unless the class was made to be quiet. She gave a little shrug of her shoulders. The teachers had never really noticed before. Of course, some of the smarter ones would copy out her writing, or type it up, but some didn’t. “I guess I’m just...good at forging other’s handwriting.”

No, she couldn’t stand up to them. Before, when it had first begun, she had tried, but the school didn’t take in idiots, and the teachers weren’t approachable. And she hadn’t wanted to mention it at home, because of the stress and the worry and the darkness that had been, even then, approaching. Her mother had been to focused on helping father, and she hadn’t been able to bring herself to mention something as petty as name calling. She must have done something to deserve it, anyway, so it was her own problem, no one elses. “Yes, it is easier to say...But it doesn’t matter. I’m used to it.” It was her last year as well. Next she’d be off to college, away from the rude people for good, if she could help it.

She glanced up at him, again, turning her brown eyes to rest on his figure, and smiled slightly, again. It was odd to smile, for her, after everything, but nice at the same time. And whether he was just pretending to be nice, or he really meant it, she didn’t know. She couldn’t work it out...but she seemed nice enough. If it did turn out he was someone who bullied psychologically..but no, he appeared older than any of the others. Sort of, anyway.

The storm...She couldn’t remember much of the storm. “I was outside, when it hit...When the rain started to fall. It was an...an odd storm, wasn't it?” she started, slowly, unsure of whether she really wanted to be talking about this with a stranger, or not. But the storm had been odd, and she had no one else to even mention it with, and by odd, she didn't just mean the ice bolders...although, those were definately included. It was a smart thing to keep things private, or things like this anyway, because surely the government had realised and would be rounding up those affected...and she didn’t really know whether she had been affected. It could just be chance, all of the things which kept happening around her.

"I...I quite enjoyed it. But I like the rain. And it had felt...odd..." she bit her lip, glancing up at the sky. Clouds did seem to be lazily rolling over the blue surface, and she tore her gaze away, disturbed. The wind was still blowing as well...and how was that not odd? But if he hadn't noticed, she didn't really fancy bringing it up, or telling him...just in case. But still...His reaction to it, to talking about the storm. It would be good just to talk about it, some of it.

“Do you...want to sit down?” she questioned timidly after a moments pause, shifting a little to spread out the blanket a little more.

[/size]

[Evan Summers]

Slowly, the dark haired boy nodded, agreeing to Marie's statement. it definitely had been an odd storm. If he was right, then the world had never seen anything like it, at least not in the last millennium. Perhaps in the times of ancient greece or rome people might have had super strength, like Herakles, but not now. In this time, this was a completely new thing, so Odd was definitely the right word with which it could be described. He wasn't sure quite what to say about it though. He still had no indication that Marie actually knew anything about the true effects of the storm. To her, it may just have been odd because of the whole thing with the hailstones. That in itself was pretty weird. After all, how could things like that even form in the atmosphere? Unless they were comets from the deepest reaches of the solar system, Evan had no explanation for them. Then again, he was hardly known for his scientific thinking, and there was a high chance that someone else might be able to think of an explanation.

"Mm, odd is the word. and it's not just the storm that's odd - strange things have been happening since then to.."

[/b] he said, not wanting to reveal too much. Rather than reveal all that he was thinking, it was better just to drop a subtle hint about the powers. If she knew anything, hopefully she'd pick up on it.

She invited him to sit down, which surprised Evan. Nodding eagerly, he got off the bench and brushed the moisture off his backside for a second. Damn, it was all wet. It looked like he'd sat in a puddle. Which he had, in a way. On the bench. Anyway, he moved away from there and went over to the blanket Marie was sitting on, joining her on the grass. It was nice being away from the cold iron of the bench - it had only increased the chilliness of the morning.

"Thank you,"[/b] he said, smiling and settling himself down on the cover for the ground. He was glad to be away from that wet. The wind was stronger down here, closer to the tree (or closer to Marie?) and he shivered a little, wrapping the small jacket he had around his body a little more.

"You enjoyed the storm? Heh. Lucky you - i almost died,"[/b] he told her, recounting the tale of how he'd ventured out of the Cafe where his friends had been hiding from the storm to retrieve a jacket. He told her to of the way that a sudden blast of lightning had knocked him back, a hailstone smashing into the ground and crushing the table. he'd got his jacket back though, which was alright. What he didn't tell her was the thing the storm had left him with, but that was fine. He didn't want to reveal everything, especially if she didn't know anything about it. She might cart him off to the government and they'd lock him in a room and then make him constantly bellow fire, the heat from which could be used to power the city at the cost of Evan having any normal semblance of a life but helping the united kingdom to reach emission reduction targets. How did he think of those things? Still, it was a possibility, so he was going to keep quiet.
[/blockquote][/sub]

[Marie DeLabou]

How had there been ice boulders, anyway? She had researched that, later on, because that was just what she did when she didn’t understand something. She researched, and studied, and learnt what there was to know about it, but there was nothing. It wasn’t even documented, from what she could find. And there was no one online talking about it. So...perhaps there was no one else, just her. That was a daunting thought, but it was no different to her everyday life. Only in that one, she had to care for her mother as well, didn’t she? Until she dragged herself out of the grief centered working frenzy she was in now.

“Strange things?” she asked slowly. Strange things...did that mean, like strange things had been happening...to him? He had said too someone. Just not who. But if it had, that would mean she wasn’t alone, which was a strange thought, she had to admit. She was so used to being alone, anything else was slightly scary. And scary things made her cry. But no, no, she wouldn’t cry, that was silly. She shook her head quickly, picking at a blade of grass and focussing on that, so hard it seemed to blur in her eyes. It was waving back and forth in her hand though, so that was probably why.

“It’s ok. That bench didn’t look very comfortable.” And it had looked wet. Marie didn’t enjoy sitting on the benches as much as she enjoyed sitting beneath her tree, but anyone could tell when a bench looked wet. It was just common sense. She watched him as he told her his story. It really did sound like he had nearly died. The same thing would have almost happened to her, if that boulder she’d woken up to find in front of her and landed a few paces to the right. Then it would have crushed her. But he’d been hit by lightning. She wasn’t sure, but, the same thing seemed to have happened before. Only, that hadn’t almost killed her. No, that had felt nice.

She fidgeted a little, but watched him as he sat down, trying to see truth in whatever he might tell her. “Do you mean...strange things have been happening, to you?” She asked it softly, looking at him from beneath the hair which was blowing lightly around her face, unsure just what she wanted to hear.

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[Evan Summers]

Evan smiled, agreeing. The bench hadn't been very comfortable really. it would have been fine if it was dry, but the wetness of the bench had ruined it quite a bit. It was better on the blanket anyway. He could hear and speak to Marie better to, which was nice. Being meters away and having a conversation was a little difficult, so it was better now.

"Yeah, it wasn't the most comfortable vessel in the world,"

[/b] he grinned, nodding to himself. It seemed as Marie continued that she was interested in the strange things that had been happening to him. He hadn't said to him personally, had he? Evan couldn't remember. Hmm. He wasn't sure if he should say anything really, after all he didn't want that uh - situation, that he'd thought of earlier to occur. that would be a very bad day. One more thing, it would probably be fine if he said that it was him that strange things had been happening to. After all, Marie didn't seem the type who sold freaks with powers to the government. Then again, what kind of person did? Evan doubted there was enough of them for the group to be classified as a 'type'.

"Uh.. Well yes, to be honest. Strange things have been happening to me,"[/b] he said, then quickly tried to brush it off, "but that's not interesting—haven't you noticed any strange things going on since the storm? You said something about the weather earlier,"[/b] he noted. he didn't realise how close he was really, he was just trying to get the conversation off a path that could lead to the discovery of his own power, without lying or being mean.

Perhaps he was on to something with the weather. There was this whole thing with the wind, so maybe the storm had done something to it, and Evan just hadn't realised it until now. It wouldn't surprise him, he'd been swamped since the storm - both with college and with trying to sort out this whole power thing, it wouldn't be too surprising if he'd missed some odd weather patterns.
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bleh post is shorter than usual. my eyes hurt and i'm sleepy |-)

[Marie DeLabou]

"No, it didn't look it," Marie said with a small smile. The bench had been metal, and metal was cold, especially wet metal, wasn't it? Must have been very uncomfortable. And having a conversation over a long distance could also be considered to be rather rude, and Marie wasn't a rude person. Her upbringing had meant that being rude was ingrained as being wrong. She couldn't even be rude to the bullies...even her arguements came out posh and prissy, according to them.

Strange things had happened to him? Marie felt a small surge of wariness start to build at that. Strange things...she wasn't sure what to think about the idea of them. The storm had been strange after all, but afterwards...that had been rather stranger. Especially with the wind and the rain and the small storm that had occured just over her back garden.Perhaps something like that had been happening to him, to Evan? It wasn't impossible, after all...

But the conversation had switched from that before she could enquire further, and perhaps that was for the best. Some things could be awkward to talk about after all, especially if the people talking didn't know one another. She didn't know him and he didn't know her, besides, apparantly, thinking her too be interesting. The most she could thing, was that he was rather interesting as well. Interesting...and nice. He was being nice to her, and friendly, and she liked that.

"Oh...the weather...well, it's just been rather strange. Haven't you noticed?" That small storm, for example...the one that had burnt over her back garden after she'd just slammed her forehead against her bedroom window, crying silently after a bad day. Not that most days at school weren't bad, because they were, but after one where the whispers and built and built and tapped away at her shell, making her enraged with the injustness of it all. "I mean...it might have just been me, but I've seen it being...odd."

She tensed, barely noticably, admittedly, but still tensed. She hadn't meant to say that. Or at least, hadn't meant to say it and make it sound like that. Not making it sound like it was her causing it. No, she'd meant to make it sound like perhaps it was just her who saw it, her who noticed. Perhaps he wouldn't notice that though. Perhaps that was also just her, feeling awkward and shy and reading things into her own words which shouldn't rightly be there.

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[Evan Summers]

Evan nodded his head, though in truth he hadn't noticed anything strange about the weather since his own obviously odd experience with the storm. really, he just wanted the conversation to go on so that he didn't end up setting on fire. Even as he was, he was pretty damn nervous about everything that was going on, and he wasn't sure he'd be able to control his power for much longer. His skin felt hot as he tried to keep his cool.

"Yeah, i guess i know what you mean,"

[/b] he said slowly, nodding to himself again. "It seems a little hot for this time of year,"

He hadn't meant to say that. It had just slipped out. Evan looked at Marie, wondering what secrets she was hiding, and what she meant really by this talk of weather. Was it possible that she to had been effected by the storm, and that it was.. following her or something? Changing the weather around her? Evan was confused by this, very confused. Thinking to himself, he wondered why it was that he had been left with blowing stuff up. Were the effects of the storm dished out of random, a deadly pot-luck party, a fatal secret santa in which people were given gifts that could Kill. Well, he said Kill. Changing the weather couldn't kill as such, but blowing stuff up could. And then there was that Tristan guy. Evan hadn't met him yet - he was planning on doing so later today. But if he was telling the truth, then Tristan could do something to. Was it possible that Tristan to, had been given one of this deadly gifts?

He hummed to himself quietly as he thought, stroking his chin a little before his attention returned, and he looked back to Marie.

"Sorry.. I was just thinking,"[/b] he said. He wondered for a moment whether it might be best to tell Marie about this. He needed someone to talk to. Tristan had seemed loud, and even if he did know something about the storm, Evan wasn't sure he'd be a great listener. Marie seemed like she would.

"Hey, Marie. I know we've only just met, but do you think you can keep a secret?"[/b] he asked, a little apprehension in his voice.

He paused for a moment longer, and then continued. "it's just... I think you might know something about this, and i don't think i can keep it to myself for much longer,"[/b] he said, still a little nervous. He didn't usually get nervous, but this was different. He had a lot to be nervous about.
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[Marie DeLabou]

“I...I hadn’t noticed anything about the heat...” she murmered, her brow crinkling slightly in through. Hadn’t she? No...but maybe? She wasn’t sure. It was warm now though, she was surprised to realise. This area was warm, even though...well, she wasn’t sure whether it had been earlier or not. Her fingers were still twisting at a blade of grass, and she ducked her head further at that thought. That wasn’t he either? No...no, it couldn’t be her. She didn’t know what was her, but making things warmer...No. So, if it wasn’t here...and it wasn’t the weather...

She peeked sideways at the older (slightly older) looking boy, looking at him from underneath the brunette waves which fell over her eyes. Him? No, that was silly, she was jumping to conclusions. Jumping to conclusions wasn’t something Marie DeLabou ever did...or something that she tried to avoid doing, anyway. It was considered rude, in her society, at the functions that her mother and her father...Marie blinked. She’d managed so long without thinking about him, and then one stray thought. No. No, she wouldn’t think about that, not right now. Evan’s humming was pulling her back to this moment, to this time. This conversation...it felt serious. She wasn’t sure how, she’d never met Evan before now, never seen him at all, but it still did. Was that such a bad thing though? Perhaps she did want someone else to be different, to be like her. Perhaps she just wanted someone to talk to.

“That’s ok...” she said, with a small, nervous laugh, “So was I. And...um...I think so..” Could she keep secrets? She’d been keeping what was happening to her a secret, that was something. She thought she could, actually. She didn’t exactly have anyone to tell. “Well...I don’t have anyone I’d say anything to, even if I couldn’t.” Perhaps there was some good thing about being a loner, then.

Her breath hitched at his next words, into something akin to a gasp. Was he going to tell her? Something...about the storm, about all of this, about...everything? She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, if that was the case...No, that was wrong. She did want to know. Marie was someone who wanted to know everything. She loved to learn, and hated not understanding something...but he looked nervous. So she took a deep breath.

“When I said weird things had been happening,” she said, quietly, her gaze falling back to the ground, and then trailed off. She didn’t know how to say it...But perhaps there was a better way. Because she did know something about this. Not much, but a bit, and...well, perhaps if she wanted it a lot...She closed her eyes, raising one of her hands, the one not still plucking at the grass blades, and then pictured crying. She didn’t want to cry in front of someone new, but...crying made it rain. And she didn’t know how to say it, and forcing him to be nervous was just rude.

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