In The Dead Of The Night

[Evan Webb]

It had been awhile since Evan had the need to go some place to be alone at night. Since his somewhat mutual understanding with Jackson, he had been able to sleep in his room at night without worrying that the boy was going to kill him in his sleep.

But that night, without Charlie to go to, he had ended up going to the student lounge like he usually did to play video games.

The student lounge never felt eerie to him at night. Rather, nothing felt eerie to him in the middle of the night. It sort of felt familiar. Which was a good thing since he was pretty much wide awake and so was his imagination. 

After spending a boat load on snacks from the vending machine, he went to the consoles and plugged it into the TV, along with his headphones that had a 6 meter wire connected to it so he could sit comfortably with it on without it being yanked every which way if he moved.

The moment the games started, he was barely aware of his surroundings, which was why when the newcomer arrived, he didn't even move to acknowledge them.

Tagging: Serena Rivers

[Serena Rivers]

It was just one of those nights were after a large amount of rolling around in bed, wrestling with nightmares, Serena just decided to give up on the whole sleeping thing. She rolled out of bed and tossed some comfortable trousers on and a blue vest. She then pulled her zip up hoodie up over her arms and silently closed her door behind her. 

After a minute or two of debating she decided to leave the dorm, she didn't want to risk waking James up by making tea or anything, so she'd go out into the kitchen and then maybe go and sit in one of the more open areas and watch some tv or play some games or something. She just didn't want to hang around here and wake up her roommates.

Serena silently set about going through the hallways, until she found herself in the kitchen, she flicked the kettle on and then quickly snatched a ceramic mug from one of the cabinets and placed a teabag in it swiftly, if there were any onlookers it would either look like a rather impressive talent to be able to so swiftly and efficiently make tea.

Or... It would look as if she had a problem.

She grabbed a couple of biscuits, finished making her tea and then walked into student lounge to see a faint light coming in from the corner, she walked over to the T.V to see a boy around her age playing a game which looked fairly familiar. She sat down on the chair just to the side of him and smiled, taking a sip of her tea and observing.

[Evan Webb]

With the light only coming from the TV and his ears covered with the noise cancelling headphones, Evan was pretty much oblivious to the newcomer as he continued with his game. He didn't know how long it was until he finally decided to pause and have a drink and a snack.

He rolled his shoulders and turned his head left and right and sighed at the pain in his neck. It was as he was rubbing his neck that he realised that he wasn't alone. Blinking to get his vision cleared, his eyes widened behind his glasses when he saw that there was someone there.

"Oh God, how long have you been there?" He hissed out of surprise.

[Serena Rivers]

Serena almost jumped in response to the boy's reaction and then simply giggled. "Only about 20 seconds, I've literally just sat down. Don't worry, I'm not creeper-ing you or anything. I just recognised the game and figured you wouldn't mind too much if I sat down to watch you." She smiled gently at the other teenager.
 
For the 20ish seconds she had been watching the other nocturnal teenager mash away at his gamepad, she had noted that his hand eye coordination on it was fairly fast, and his response time in the game was fairly good too. She assumed that he played games quite a lot, which suggested to her that this was his console. 

She herself, only owned one actual console. Well no, she had only bought one, she technically owned 4 now, but three of those had been her older brother's and she hadn't touched them since his death. Maybe one day she should crack them open to celebrate his memory. It was geeky, and a little odd, but she was fairly sure he would have appreciated it.

"You're not too bad you know." She winked. 

[Evan Webb]

"Nah...I didn't think you were. Just...surprised anyone is awake at this time besides me." Evan said after he finally calmed himself down. Man, he must have looked like a wimp, jumping like that.

A small smile started to spread when the girl complimented his playing. "Thanks. I would hope not. I've been playing this game since I was twelve." He chuckled.

"What are you doing down here?" He asked out of curiosity.

Serena Rivers

[Serena Rivers]

Serena chuckled at the boy's comment. It seemed that he had gotten over being startled. For a second she had been extremely worried about the boy turning out to be socially awkward like James had been, that basket case had taken some serious energy and time investment to dissipate that positive aura of awkward. This guy seemed to be alright though. 

"I also used to play this when I was a bit younger with my older brother. It was fun staying up and playing this on weekends and stuff." She smiled gently. She was in a good mood, even though she was up rather late. 

She smiled at him. "Well, I couldn't sleep, so I figured I might as well get a cup of tea and see if anybody else was up around the student lounges. And what do you know, a gamer is at work." She giggled before taking another sip of her tea. 

[Evan Webb]

There was a distinct difference Evan seemed to exude wherein he wasn't awkward. He was jumpy, yes. Clumsy, cripplingly so. Socially anxious, a big fat check. But it all took time to get used to and that was all Evan was. Someone who took time to get used to things.

And this was small beans compared to everything else he faced. Sure, the girl was so pretty and he felt like he wanted to swallow himself whole talking to her but a quick mental pep talk had him going "Whatever, I talk to Charlie all the time. She's the prettiest girl I know." And everything was fine.

"Right? This is such an old game. I think I had it on my PS1 before I changed my consoles. Over and over again but yeah." He chuckled. He continued with his game and tilted his head in her direction so she knew he was listening.

Laughing at her statement, Evan shrugged and shook his head. "I'm not a gamer per se. I play games but I'm not at that caliber just yet." He nodded.

"You got more of that tea, though?" He asked shamelessly.

[Serena Rivers]

Serena smiled gently, she had never really thought of it as an 'old' game, although she didn't play games THAT much, because generally speaking books and poetry were so much more inticing to her, she had played a lot of this particular game and it didn't really feel dated, it was like reading some of the works by Arthur conan Doyle, and still being impressed with the quality of the writing, even though they are as old as they are.

She nodded in agreement with him. "Me neither, I spend far more time reading or writing poetry, writing is just so much fun." Man that sentence made her sound like a geek. She was just the coolest (And most sterotypical) British person on campus, regardless of what James said or claimed. 

She giggled lightly at his shameless, not so subtle request to get some of the tea. "I could have some more of it~" She winked and drained the remainder of her cup. "Would you like me to make you some as well? How do you take your tea?" This guy seemed nice enough, and again nowhere near as awkward as James was around girls.

Serena wasn't one to judge though, for all she knew he could be a homosexual, or A-sexual or any of those other things. Or not into her, or just not awkward around girls. Any of the above. Regardless, if her appreciated tea he was alright in her book. 

[Evan Webb]

"Hey, you write?" Evan asked, pausing his game for awhile as he turned to her, suddenly very interested. He had never met anyone who liked writing. Reading, yes, he had friends like that, but writing was a whole different thing.

When she offered to make some more, Evan beamed and nodded. "Two sugars please. Thank you." He nodded before returning to his game.

"So tell me more about your writing."

[Serena Rivers]

Serena rushed off rapidly and grabbed (After checking it's temperature) The teapot, milk and an extra mug. She then poured out the boy's mug and dropped in 2 sugar cubes, stiring gently until they were dissolving nicely. She glanced up at his question. "Hmm? Oh. I write all sorts, I enjoy sort stories, fantasy, I write a lot of poetry though." 

It was unusual that people took any kind of an interest in her writing, especially someone she had just met, it was odd that ..... She hadn't gotten his name, or introduced herself for that matter. Oops. 

Serena quickly offered her introductions "Hi I mean, uh. I didn't introduce myself. My name's Serena, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." She also held out her hand for shaking. She couldn't believe she had forgotten her manors, how terrible of her. 

She then handed him his tea. "Two sugars, right?" She had already poured the milk, it wasn't TOO hot, just quite hot. After all, what was the point in a hot drink that wasn't hot? Or just tea which wasn't hot, right? It was near pointless if it wasn't..

She then got to work on her own mug. 

[Evan Webb]

"Oh wow. That's gotta be heavy. I can't write if my life depended on it. But reading? Reading I could do." He nodded with a chuckle.

When the girl said hi, Evan did a double take before realising they hadn't actually introduced themselves. He felt so stupid but recovered quite quickly as he reached out to shake her hand. "Evan. And pleasure's all mine. Sorry. Playing tends to make me forget my manners." He chuckled apologetically.

Accepting the mug happily, after pausing his game, he lifted the lip up to his and took a slow sip. "Mm...yes thanks." He enjoyed drinking tea, it had a nice taste that coffee seemed to lack.

"So, if you don't mind my asking, what are you in here for?" He asked before explaining that he meant Bellefonte and not the student lounge. "Your powers I mean."

[Serena Rivers]

Serena smiled gently. He seemed to appreciate the tea. Evan was a really nice name. It wasn't too common like James or Joe, but wasn't obnoxiously unique. "Evan. That's a nice name." She smiled gently, not flirtatiously or sarcastically, it was just a gentle, innocent smile.


She took a slow gulp of her tea savoring it's flavour. She also had 2 sugars, which she only did some of the time when she felt like having it extra sweet, she had tried those sweetener things before too, they just didn't seem to taste right to Serena though. 


"Huh...?" He made it sound as if they had been imprisoned for having powers... Well, they kind of had but it wasn't really like that. It was more to protect them from society than the other way around, or at least that was how Serena saw it most of the time, although to be fair there were also times when she had felt that she was a danger to society herself.


She giggled for a moment. It was kind of funny, the fact that she had completely misunderstood for a moment. Her power was kind of infamous throughout the years closest to her though, it was certainly one of the weirder ones and around the more squeamish people in her year, it was also one of the more terrifying powers.


It was alike to people with hydrokinesis except it's medium was so much more... Gross. There had even been a few rumours floating around about her being able to turn into blood, although as far as most of the year was concerned those were still just rumours. "I'm the resident haemokinetic, it's kinda gross. How about yourself?" 

[Evan Webb]

"I do quite like my name. Thank you." Evan smiled in return. "Serena's quite nice too. It has a nice flow to it." He grinned before sipping more of his tea.

He could see the confusion in the other mutant and grinned apologetically. He hadn't meant for it to come out like that, though he also thought it was quite funny.

At Serena's reply, he nodded before laughing when she said it was gross. It did make him wonder how she manifested and how she dealt with it.

"I'm a sensory scryer." He paused before asking her if she knew what it was. "Basically I bring the saying 'walk a mile in someone else's shoe' to a whole 'nother level. If I use my ability, I can see what someone else sees, hear what they can hear, stuff like that."

[Serena Rivers]

Serena tried to imagine what the boy meant, stepping into another person's shoes? Was that like, possessing their body, was it just sharing what they were experiencing, in any case, it certainly sounded like a mutation that could actually be... fun to use, as opposed to Serena's.


She smiled. "That sounds quite interesting. I imagine that you can see some rather interesting things with that power. Suffer any nasty side effects? That seems to be a trope around powers." she took another sip of her rather sweet tea.


This Evan seemed really nice, or nice enough at least. She should maybe consider introducing him to James, she imagined that the two of them could quite possibly get on very well. 

[Evan Webb]

"I've...seen my fair share of things that are...interesting sure." Evan chuckled at the word choice and shook his head. "I don't mean to tease, although you are quite right." He nodded.

Nasty side effects? So far, he had been blinded temporarily because she overshot using his power by an hour. That was completely unpleasant.

"Well, I wouldn't call a nasty side-effect a trope." He chuckled. "But it's scary to think of someone who has a flawless power. Unless that power was the ability to make perfect pasta every time." Teasing, he finally shrugged and answered her question. "I do though. Have a nasty side effect. If I overuse it, I could temporarily lose the sense I've...stolen I guess is the right word? Borrowed. Yeah, that sounds so much better." He chuckled.