Better Now

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau jogged his second lap around the arena, eventually coming to a stop and looking up at the bleachers. This was where they were going to be having those tryouts soon, tryouts to see who ended up on the security squad. Beau wasn't even entirely sure why he wanted on the squad. He just knew there were people here that he wanted to protect and, more than that, there were people here who needed protecting. And Beau wanted, he supposed, to prove that there could be more to this whole thing.

So why was he jogging around the arena? Simple: when tryout time came, Beau wanted to at least know the area well. He wanted to get some practice in too... except he needed someone to actually practice with. He let out a breath, reaching back around to lace his fingers behind his head. He really should've invited someone along. Liz probably would've been good, or maybe Erika. Though Beau did already know how to do their powers. Probably best if he worked with something new.

"Yeah, I jus' gotta hope someone wanders on in," he said, sighing. He stared at the entrance for a while, then, when nobody immediately appeared, he began jogging again. He soon came around to the edge of the arena, where he mounted the steps and began jogging up and down them. Stamina had to count for something, right? He thought he was doing pretty good, at least. It was weird though, because at a few laps, Beau thought he felt a strange tingling sensation. Was... was someone else here? Probably doing the same thing he was...

[Eve Turner]

Eve was walking towards the Arena to do some training - again.
Her brother would blame her for not studying now for sure, but he wasn't here and to be honest she didn't find school that hard.
Also, her power was rather physical, so it made more sense to practice her body. She wasn't stupid, but she wouldn't use most of the stuff she had to study for school anyway and if she needed some information or was interested in it she could still look it up then, she didn't have to know everything by heart now, did she?

As she entered the Arena she was surprsied to see that someone was already there. This time she had actually planned to do some training on her own. Well, fair enough. She put her drink next to the entrance and started to warm up, still watching the guy from the corner of her eye.
She had intented to practice alone, but usually it was pretty hard to find someone to do some fighting with and now she actually got a bit bored by the thought of practicing alone.

"Well, screw the plans.", she muttered to herself, deciding, that practicing with someone else together would be more interesting and started a sprint.
It took her some time till she caught up with the boy, but still she was pretty happy with her speed.
"Hey you", she called out, once she slowed down a bit next to him, "Would you be free for some training?"

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau jerked his head as he heard the call, blinking as he saw an unfamiliar face: a blonde, one that was actually shorter than him, this latter part being the more surprising part. He blinked a few times as he took that in, and just when he thought he had that part under control, he noticed that she happened to have a metal arm. This immediately made Beau look at his own matching arm, wondering if he'd just broken out in metal or something. Nothing unusual met his gaze.

"Uh, yeah," he said, tearing his gaze away from his completely normal arm and looking at the girl, "I'm actually here to do that," he paused for a moment, chuckling and rubbing at the back of his head. "Guess there wouldn't be much other reason to be 'round here."

He looked around. Yeah, the arena definitely wasn't the kind of place you went for anything other then training. Beau lowered the hand and let out a long, slow breath, eventually looking back at the girl. He meant to look her in the eye, but his gaze inevitably fell upon the shiny steel thing that was her arm. "I'm kinda confused though, on account o' you havin' that,' he pointed. "Not that it's that weird; people got all sorts of strange stuff 'round here, but I usually pick up everyone else's strange," he held up his arm, waving it. "Kinda my power: I pick up whatever anyone else has got. So I'm kinda wonderin' why my arm ain't goin' all shiny and metallic."

Odd thing to wonder, to be sure, but Beau figured it was at least somewhat valid, given the rather unusual situation.

[Eve Turner]

The guy seemed to be kind of surprised at Eve's sight, but she was used to this. With her outstanding tinyness and her metal arm she wasn't exactly someone you met everyday. But well, that made life interesting, right? Who wanted to be someone you met everyday anyway.
Still, the fact that he turned to his own arm was rather rare and she raised an eyebrow, being a bit confused by this reaction.

"Uh, yeah," he said, tearing his gaze away from his completely normal arm and looking at the girl, "I'm actually here to do that," he paused for a moment, chuckling and rubbing at the back of his head. "Guess there wouldn't be much other reason to be 'round here."
She nodded witih a grin: "It's called Arena for a reason, right?"

"I'm kinda confused though, on account o' you havin' that,' he pointed. "Not that it's that weird; people got all sorts of strange stuff 'round here, but I usually pick up everyone else's strange," he held up his arm, waving it. "Kinda my power: I pick up whatever anyone else has got. So I'm kinda wonderin' why my arm ain't goin' all shiny and metallic."

The first thing she noticed, was his accent. She had heard it before, not as often though, and she had to admit she thought it was kind of cute. She thought a moment about commenting on it, but decided not to. It sure was something he heard quite often and she knew how annoying it was to hear the same questions over and over again.
"Well, my metal arm isn't my power", she then told him, a bit amused about his confusion, "I lost my arm in a car crash when I was pretty young and when I discovered my power- metal bending by the way", she added with a wink, "My brother and I replaced the plastic artificial arm with a metallic one, so I'd be able to use it as a weapon as well"

She had always been pretty proud of her arm. Sure, as long as she lived with "normal" people, she couldn't use it as a weapon in public, but still it had always been pretty useful. Not only for their steeling sprees, but also for everyday stuff. She never had to be afraid to have left her key at home and she knew she would always be able to defend herself against some kind of attacker. Also - how many people could say they build their artificial arm themselves?

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau chuckled with the girl's answer, nodding. It definitely was called the arena. Though arenas meant fighting, and Beau wasn't sure he could really unload on a female. Something just felt off about doing that; definitely felt impolite, that was for darn sure.

Though this was one girl that could certainly handle herself, judging by the way she carried herself and talked about the crash. Had to admire someone who took something like losing a limb in stride. Not only that, but she turned it into a strength. Beau actually found his respect growing as the story continued, even smiling. "Sounds like you're tough, that's for sure," he said, nodding once more. "Oh, an' my name's Beau, by the way. Don't reckon I introduced myself yet," and he extended a hand toward her, purposefully picking the one that would match her metal arm. He wanted to show that it didn't bother him. Why would something like a false limb disturb him anyway? Wasn't like she could help that.

Though Beau couldn't really say that he'd have been as open minded if she had horns on her head or a tail or something. He could only take so much abnormality in stride, and it probably helped that the possessor of said abnormality happened to be a pretty blonde girl. "An' you ain't gotta worry none 'bout me stealin' your power or nothin'. I just sorta get whatever you got, no harm done. Ain't gonna be near as good as you with it though, seein' as I ain't spent much time metalbendin' these past few years."

That was always the drawback: lots of options, but not nearly the strength someone else would have. Not unless he got super lucky, and that very, very rarely happened.

[Eve Turner]

"Sounds like you're tough, that's for sure," he said, nodding once more.
"Well, it's actually rather thanks to my brother", she said with a shrug, "But thanks"
She heard that comment quite often, however she was pretty sure she would have become a whiny little shit without Jim. She was quite thankful she had him, he had done a great job at taking care of her and even though both of them didn't have much luxury she could say she had a happy life.

"Oh, an' my name's Beau, by the way. Don't reckon I introduced myself yet," and he extended a hand toward her.
Eve raised an eyebrow, confused why he chose his left arm, but took his hand anyway.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Eve", she said with a smile, pulling her hand back again after shaking his for a moment. He was able to mimic her power, therefore he might be able to bend her arm and she was sure that would feel pretty uncomfortable.

"An' you ain't gotta worry none 'bout me stealin' your power or nothin'. I just sorta get whatever you got, no harm done. Ain't gonna be near as good as you with it though, seein' as I ain't spent much time metalbendin' these past few years.", he then said and Eve couldn't help but grin at that accent.
"Well, I don't consider it too hard to control to be honest. Once my power started developing I got a hang of it pretty quickly", she replied, "I mean... the Bellefonte staff picked me up like four weeks after it started and until then I could already use the arm I had gotten when my power started so..", she shrugged, "You could give it a  try"

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau nodded; "We all  get the strength from somewhere," he added. he knew that he certainly could put a lot of his own support on his family and friends. Certainly didn't lessen his opinion of Eve any less, nor did her relatively quick handshake. His power did make people nervous from time to time, whatever he said; Eve certainly wasn't the first to feel a little unnerved about touching him, nor would she likely be the last.

Names were exchanged with nods all around; Eve would be easy enough for Beau to remember and pronounce, thankfully. Beau listened intently as she explained her power though; if they were going to be training together pretty soon, then he'd need to know at least the basics. She hadn't outright said what she did, just something about metalbending, which could be just about anything. People always thought that their powers were so easy to explain, then they ran into Beau, who got to experience what it was like when you didn't have a clue what was happening to you. Even now, he wanted to make sure not to think about Eve's arm or anything on the small off-chance that he accidentally moved it or something.

Which made the last part of what Eve said a little confusing to the poor guy. He frowned, then raised a hand up to rub at the back of his head. "Are you sayin' you want me to move your arm?" he asked, feeling that to be awkward, "an', like, is this a thinkin' thing or do I gotta do some movements or somethin'?" he supposed it could vary; it sometimes did with stuff like this, which just made the power picking up thing even more fun. He let out a breath, glancing to the arm for only a second before looking around, figuring there had to be more metal around here somewhere. There were probably bars and balls of the stuff stashed away somewhere; surely they could get that out, right?

[Eve Turner]

Beau nodded; "We all get the strength from somewhere."
"Yes, I guess so", Eve agreed, while casually putting her hair up into a ponytail, it was definitly too warm for this time of the year.
However, she knew what he meant. Once you woke up realising you were able to do something no one else could do, it was hard to go on all by yourself, but even harder to still get along with your old friends. Most of Eve's had been pretty freaked out the day she arrived at school with a metal arm that she could shape into whatever she wanted. Of course, she could have tried to hide it, but wasn't the point of friendship that people liked you just the way you were?

"Are you sayin' you want me to move your arm?" Beau asked, but Eve instantly shook her head.
"Not my arm, I guess that would feel.. weird. But you could try to bend something else, I don't know, your keyring or something.", she explained with a shrug, "I just thought that if you wanted to practice this would be an easy way to do so, as my power is not to hard to control."

"an', like, is this a thinkin' thing or do I gotta do some movements or somethin'?", he then added and she couldn't help but laugh.
"Would look weird if I had to make some movements everytime I want to move my arm, wouldn't it?", she asked with a chuckle, "And you simply have to touch whatever you want to bend and yeah.. think of whatever shape you want to form it into"

It felt strange to explain her power, she never had to do that before. Why should she? To be honest she had never really thought about how it worked, she had just done it. Just the same way she dealt with anything really, instructions were boring - she much rather just try and look what happens and until now that had worked out quite well

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau just nodded as Eve agreed to his assessment, glad that they were at least on the same page about that, if nothing else. It seemed like they were still playing catchup with regard to the ability though. Beau had to chuckle as she suggested he avoid messing with any parts of her body. instead, he dug into his pocket, figuring that he did have his key. He stopped though, figuring that probably wouldn't be the best choice he could make. He did feel something else in his pocket though: some change. Happened when you got paid in case as often as Beau did. He dug out a few different coins, mostly quarters and pennies for some reason, holding them up for Eve to see.

"These work?" he asked, lowering the hand as soon as he got confirmation one way or the other. Eve had offered an explanation, sort of. He recognized the whole awkward "I've been doing this forever but don't quite know how to explain it to someone else" thing. Wasn't like you really had to go around explaining the exact details of your power to everyone. Touch it, think about the shape.

So Beau held the coins up, pinched between his fingers. He pursed his lips, licking them for a moment, and focused on them. They wibbled and wobbled before warping into the shape of a treble clef, both the copper colored penny and the quarter wrapping around each other. Beau let out a laugh, nodding at it. "Now that's a useful ability. You make art with it sometime?" he was semi serious as he looked at what he'd made. He was definitely hanging onto it: Liz would get a kick. "Though I reckon we should be focused on a little more practical uses, huh?" he admitted, tucking the mini-sculpture back into his pocket and looked down to the arena. They'd definitely need to try some metal bars or something, see what they could manage...

[Eve Turner]

Eve watched Beau – to be honest she doubted she would ever be able to pronounce that name correctly – as he took a few coins out of his pocket.
"These work?“, he asked and Eve gave him a quick nod.
"They would work for me, so just give it a try“

Eve had to admit it was weird seeing someone else use her power, but she was impressed how good he actually did it.
“See, I told you it’s not too hard”, she said with an encouraging smile, crossing her arms in front of her chest, “You could try something bigger after that.”

“Now that’s a useful ability. You make art with it sometime?”
Eve shook her head with a chuckle: “I’m way too impatient for that”
Jim had always tried to get her into some kind of art – drawing, painting, sculpturing – but she just couldn’t get anything out of it. She thought it was kind of useless and why should she invest so much time on something that she would never use?
The only kind of art she had actually enjoyed was photography and music (even though Eve considered music to be way more than just art), but except that... not a chance.

"Though I reckon we should be focused on a little more practical uses, huh?" he admitted, tucking the mini-sculpture back into his pocket and looked down to the arena.
“True, I usually use my power for moving my arm, but I doubt you need that. Except that it’s pretty useful to create weapons, like a dagger or something”, she explained with a shrug and started grinning, “Also keys are fun to make, I never have to worry about forgetting my dorm-key.”

Of course there was another use of keys as well - breaking into some room or even house will never be as easy as when you simply open up the door with a key – but she decided not to talk about that, not yet anyway. Jim used to tell her, that keeping your advantages for yourself was the most efficient way of using them after all.

[Beau LaRoux]

"Wasn't," agreed Beau. It wasn't that much different from some of the telekinetic abilities that he'd utilized before, and some of those were among his best when it came to control and power. Just a worse range, but even then, he could definitely see the uses of something like this. Almost made him wish he could actually carry powers with him for a while; this would be a good one to show off for the tryouts.

Not so much for art though, which made Beau chuckle. Eve offered much more logical uses for it, and he found himself nodding. "I was thinkin' more shield or armor," he admitted. He chuckled, and began walking down toward the arena floor, figuring that they should probably get to where the equipment was. Beau didn't know the full extent of what was there; he was pretty sure that nobody did, but he knew for a fact that they kept a store of random metal objects and stuff. He called over his shoulder as he went: "Thought about usin' my key; worried that I'd mess it up, an' I ain't sure my roommates would let me back in," he flashed a quick smile and jogged down a few more steps.

Beau paused, looking back of his shoulder. "There's some metal discs an' stuff down there,' he said, nodding. "Seen it before when I came here for trainin'. Figure we can get it an' I dunno, do somethin' with it," he shrugged and took a few more steps. He paused to look over his shoulder, making sure that she followed. If Eve did, he'd keep going. If not, well, he'd figure out what to do if that happened.

[Eve Turner]

"I was thinkin' more shield or armor," he admitted.
Eve slightly tilted her head to the side, thinking. She herself preferred to be agile during a fight and found armour or shields too restricting, but she understood what he meant. For someone rather using strength than speed, her power could be more useful as a shield. On the other hand Beau didn't seem to be too much of a strength-fighter, either - he wasn't as taller than her as most people were after all - but she decided to keep that for herself.
"Yeah, you're right, that could be quite useful- though I prefer to use my size in a fight, which is easier without armour or a shield", she said with a slight smile. Her size might not be useful during everyday-life, but it sure was an advantage in fights as long as you knew how to use it.

As he turned around and started walking she raisend an eyebrow, confused for a moment, until she realised he seemed to be walking towards the equipment - made sense after all. She followed him, soon catching up.
"You do that often? Just walking off without saying anything?", she asked with a slight grin. It didn't bother her, not at all, it was just something she wasn't used to, but well, everyone had his own quirks, right?

"Thought about usin' my key; worried that I'd mess it up, an' I ain't sure my roommates would let me back in," he flashed a quick smile.
"Well, I would probably let my roommate wait for a bit as well", she chuckled, "Thankfully I have the shape of my key memorized so I can use my hand to open the door whenever I like - no more locking yourself out"
She had often locked herself out a lot when she she had been younger and her power hadn't developed yet, so being able to imitate your key whenever you needed it was especially for her pretty handy.

"There's some metal discs an' stuff down there" Beau said, nodding. "Seen it before when I came here for trainin'. Figure we can get it an' I dunno, do somethin' with it."
She gave him a nod and kept following him: "Sounds good to me"
She was pretty sure explaining her power would make it easier for her to understand it and helping another person to control it would help her control it as well. Also, Beau was quite a nice company, so she had no problem showing him how to use her power - in a fight you were better off as a team after all and now that the whole SPECTRE-thing was going on, fights weren't too unlikely anymore.

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau could understand why he and Eve might think differently on what to do in case of a fight. different styles, different body types, and heck, she was a girl while he was most definitely male. All sorts of reasons for them to think differently about how to do this, and so he just ended up nodding. He also wanted to admit that he wasn't sure that he wanted to make metal weapons to hurt people.

He ended up chuckling at Eve's question, though his explanation was soon coming. He did add: "I don't usually wanna let pretty girls outta my sight, but we ain't gonna do much trainin' up here." The rest of his explanation should work well enough to explain why he was heading on down. It wasn't like she had one of those abilities that Beau wanted to get away from. Some people just had abilities that didn't work out well for the Southern boy, or they had weird side effects.

She followed, and it wouldn't be too long before they made it down to the arena proper. There were a few things already set up, targets and the like that most people made certain were available for people who wanted to get some training in. They'd have to set something like that up when they were done, to be sure. For now though, Beau needed to remember where those discs and stuff were. He was pretty sure they were tucked off into storage vessels at the side or something.

"Uh, don't suppose you remember where the stuff is?" he said. He was moving to look, going with his gut instinct and heading to examine a storage container. "Looks like I found all the... stuffed animals. Don't think I wanna know," he did dig up a rather bedraggled looking bear, holding it up so that Eve could get a look before closing that container up.

[Eve Turner]

He did add: "I don't usually wanna let pretty girls outta my sight, but we ain't gonna do much trainin' up here."
"Good answer", she said with grin, actually a bit charmed by the pretty girls part, who didn't like a compliment after all, right? Also it made sense to walk towards the training stuff, even though she still didn't understand why he had just turned around and left, but well... everybody has their own weird habits now, right?

They passed the already set up training stuff and Eve followed Beau to some of the containers. As she heard his question she shook her head with a shrug.
"No idea, to be honest. I usually don't need stuff like that", she replaid, watching as he looked through the different containers.

"Looks like I found all the... stuffed animals. Don't think I wanna know," he did dig up a rather bedraggled looking bear, holding it up so that Eve could get a look before closing that container up.
She raised an eyebrow, well, that was weird now, wasn't it? Maybe some powers needed training on something you could fire your power at, but why would anyone use a Teddybear for that? She had always thougth there were special dolls made for that.
"Better don't question it.. yeah, I think we don't wanna know", she agreed, but then started grinning, "But well, if someday we wake up to be attacked by zombie-teddybears - we now know where their headquarters are"

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau only grinned as Eve told him he'd done well with the answer. That was a lifetime of charming girls right there for you. He was slightly more focused on the actual training part instead of flirting for the moment though, and busied himself sorting through the bins and the like. Eve didn't seem to know where to look any more than Beau did. He just shrugged at her response. They'd find what they were looking for soon enough; wasn't like people were going to show up and kick them out or that they were doing anything that would get them in trouble. The arena was for training; they were training, ergo they were using the arena properly.

though Beau did have to wonder what kind of training involved teddy bears. Apparently Eve was at least confused, judging by her reaction. The zombie teddy bear comment drew a chuckle from Beau, and he turned to look at the one he was holding. 'You know, I think there are some people that can make objects move or somethin'," he said. He tapped his fingers along the container for a few moments, considering the creature. "An' I'm thinkin' we had an infestation of these things a few years ago. Were everywhere or somethin'..." Beau trailed off for a moment, chuckling and shaking his head. "So maybe they're trainin' us for the great teddy bear uprising."

He tossed the bear back in and moved on to another container, prying it open. Feathers, and lots of them. a few flew up as he opened, puffing into Beau's face. He blew them out, wiping at his face. "Don't suppose you can move feathers?" he asked. He only looked over at Eve for a second before moving on to the next. Feathers weren't as interesting as teddy bears, after all.