Round 2: the television

[Demi Smith]

Demi stared at the television, not quite sure what to make of it. They'd talked about it, at least in general terms. Signals were sent to the device, which then lit up lights in accordance with the signals to make a picture, usually accompanied by sound. What Demi didn't understand was why this particular one apparently showed what looked like moving drawings. What was the purpose of that? They didn't seem to be teaching anything, though there did seem to be a few students gathered around them, staring at the device as though it sucked their brains. Demi seriously wondered if this wasn't exactly what it was doing. Would certainly make sense.

How could she figure this out though? She certainly couldn't ask; asking would show confusion which would show weakness. She'd heard something about a remote that controlled the television. Perhaps she should go for the remote? Control the television, control what it said. That should be easy enough, right? Wait, she wouldn't control what the signals sent though. She needed to attack the television station then, right?

But in order to figure that out, she'd have to ask. Growling, Demi slid some of the dirt off her arm and rolled it into a ball. She couldn't figure this thing out at all, and when she couldn't figure something out, well, it was easier to attack it than ask questions. If you beat it, you were better than it, and you didn't have to worry about why you beat it. So Demi flicked her fingers, using just a bit of her power to send the dirt spiraling into the television, hopefully stopping the pictures or at least doing something.

[Aurora Holiday]

Aurora didn't often come to the student lounge, though she wasn't sure why. It was filled with various activities she could busy herself with, and there were numerous people she could talk to and/or become friends with. Today had seemingly been an ordinary day, though one of the younger girls had caught her eye. She didn't seem very old, but she was surrounded by mystery, it was very neat. She simply chuckled as she watched the next few moments unravel. Honestly, she couldn't believe her eyes, Did that girl really just throw dirt at the TV screen? she wondered to herself.

She began to make her way over to the girl, "Excuse me, but if you don't like what's on, you can simply change the channel with the remote." she said pointing to the remote beside the girl. It was pretty surprising to see the girl throw a ball of dirt at the screen. During Aurora's stay  in Bellefonte, she had seen some really weird stuff, but this was definitely up there. She sighed as she blew the dirt off of the TV screen with her own powers. Aurora didn't mind using her powers around others, usually she would have been one to keep her powers to herself, but not recently. She had been training excessively and gained more control over her own powers, well, she'd like to think so. Even if she hadn't gotten that much more control over them, she had learned to be more.. accepting with them.

She looked at the now clean TV, back to the girl, "I was once told by someone that “Asking for help does not mean that we are weak or incompetent. It usually indicates an advanced level of honesty and intelligence.” she said sighing a bit. "Even though I know this, I still dislike asking for help. I assume you don't need help though, do you?" she asked curiously as she realized why this girl had captured her attention; it was because she reminded Aurora of herself, to some extent. Aurora wasn't great at saying the right things to make friends and what not, but Aurora knew she wanted to be friends with this girl, therefore, she would do her best to accomplish said task.

[Demi Smith]

Demi turned at the voice, watching the lean girl. Lean, and fierce looking, and she practically moved as if she had Flow. Demi frowned, noting not that the girl wiped away the dirt, but how she did it. With a flick of her hand and a gust of air. An air-kinetic, which put her almost directly on Demi's own level, especially if she'd been training excessively... though this girl looked like she had a few years on Demi.

I could still take her, the pugnacious girl thought, clenching her fists and glaring at the other. The lecture went one ear and out the other, as lectures tended to do when they involved Demi. "I don't need help," agreed Demi, her voice nearly as hard as her eyes. She clenched and released her fists a few times, her body tensing, ready to enter the Flow at the slightest instance though she knew she wouldn't have a chance. Not enough earth here: the dirt and dust covering her certainly wouldn't be enough to fight a real air-kinetic.

"It's just a stupid television,' she said, looking over at it. "I was just thinking of breaking it because I didn't like it." There, see what the other girl thought of that. Demi even smirked, obviously feeling like she'd just won, somehow.

[Aurora Holiday]

As soon as Aurora grew close to the other girl, something just felt right. She was getting a sense that this girl was very skilled, or at least had a lot of potential. She watched as the other girl glared at her, even going as far as clenching her fists. Aurora would have been happy to par with the girl, though she wasn't sure she wanted to do it here. The other girl was very, uptight. Aurora glanced around the room, trying to figure out why in the world she'd be so tense. Aurora simply shrugged as the girl agreed to her not needing help, she figured that much, she had been the same way, refused help from others and sometimes, she still was like that.

After a few moments, Aurora couldn't find any reason for her to be so tense. Sure it was reasonable to always keep your guard up, Aurora certainly did, but to also be so tense, maybe the poor girl just needed a spa day or something. "You okay there? You seem a little tense," she finally said as she spoke her thoughts. Often times speaking what was on her mind didn't go over with people very well, though sometimes it did work and things were better or at least less awkward if they were beforehand. 

She chuckled as Demi told her that she wanted to break one of the TV's simply because she didn't like it. Aurora wasn't always one for getting into trouble, though she was pretty good at avoiding it when she was doing not great things. She smiled at the girl then looked around the room at various TV's; some of them people were gathered around, others were blank. After spotting a TV with multiple people around it, she turned back to Demi and chuckled, "If you're going to break a TV, don't make it the one right in front of you." She gestured to the group of kids by a TV a couple spaces away and began to condense a ball of air.

With a flick of her wrist, the air blew over and shattered the screen. Almost immediately the kids started bickering over who had broken it while Aurora sat smugly off to the side, watching it all unfold.

[Demi Smith]

"Tense?" repeated Demi, practically snorting. She was half tempted to say something along the lines of "I'm not tense" or, perhaps more accurately: "Of course I'm tense. I'm stuck in this stupid school away from all my people and everyone here's a big, stupid idiot with wussy powers," but instead Demi settled for giving Aurora a hard look. That look only grew harder as Aurora chuckled. Demi's body tensed, and she looked about ready to spring.

Just as Demi started to move though, Aurora gestured. Demi turned, figuring that she was being distracted or something. She felt the air though, and saw the screen shatter. Demi barked a laugh at that, a laugh that soon moved into a smirk. Much of the tension flooded out of her almost immediately. that was cool.

"I couldn't do that without getting caught though," she said, looking up at Aurora. "That's, like, the only real drawback with earth, and it's why it always sucks whenever I got against an air-kinetic," she paused, then actually extended a fairly dirty hand. Demi seemed to realize the filth and actually peeled off a little, showing the white skin that lay beneath. "I'm Demi, well, actually Demeter of the Inherited, but Demi works." Because Demi didn't like hearing the people around here using her actual People name, mostly. Aurora though, she seemed... well, kinda like she would've been right at home among the Inherited.

[Aurora Holiday]

Aurora smiled, and just like that, the girl was more relaxed and was definitely more friendly. She simply shrugged when she said she'd get caught if she attempted to so the same. Unfortunately, it was true, there weren't many earth manipulators if any at all (besides Demi) at the school, so she wouldn't be able to blame it on another earth manipulator. "Indeed, though every element has its own benefits and weaknesses," she smiled at the girl. Manipulating air was basically almost all offensive base, in saying, you didn't have much defense from other attacks, or at least, Aurora had yet to learn how to use the air to defend herself. This said, Aurora had gotten quite nimble on her feet, and had learned to dodge many things and attacks.

She reached out and took the girl's hand, she didn't mind that it was dirty, though that didn't really matter once Demi removed most of the dirt. How kind. she thought to herself. It was a simple gesture, but it did have some kind of specialty to it, she could have left it dirty. Aurora mumbled Demi's longer name once before smiling and offering her own name, "I'm Aurora..." she frowned for a moment, she didn't have a cool group name like Demi did, "Aurora of Bellefonte Academy, I guess." she said with a slight frown, not quite nice of a ring to it, or sound cool at all, but oh well... He frown didn't last long though, Aurora didn't like to frown when she didn't have to. So as quickly as the frown came, it had left, replaced by a smile once more.

She glanced over at the boys who had finally settled down and moved to a new TV, then back to Demi. "So Demi, what are you up to today? Just breaking TV's?" she asked casually as she began to watch whatever the TV was showing. The day was still fairly young, maybe, if the girl was up for it, Aurora would be able to get some practice in. Otherwise she'd just have to go to her trainer or something and schedule a fight, or whatever people were calling them these.  days, for a different time, one better for Demi.

[Demi Smith]

"Yeah, people always forget that stuff," said Demi, nodding as Aurora talked about elements and all. She certainly knew quite a lot about it, which made Demi wonder if Aurora had really been here that long. They shook, and Aurora introduced herself like she was an Inherited or something, or maybe that was how they trained special people to introduce themselves around here? Demi had certainly never heard anyone else do it like that.

They'd settled though, and soon Demi was snorting again. "Not really," she said. She rubbed her arm against her body, picking up some of the dirt caking her. "I was just trying to figure some of the stuff here. We didn't have a lot of this stuff where I came from, so I have to learn it all and junk," she wrinkled her nose, obviously not enjoying the learning process and not generally impressed with everything there was here. "It's all really stupid for the most part. Like television and all. I'd rather go out and do stuff, you know?"

she looked up at Aurora, figuring that, since the girl was something of a kindred spirit, she'd probably want the same thing. Demi wondered briefly if the other girl would spar with her. Demi'd probably lose, but it would be cool to fight against another kinetic/bender who actually could, you know, do stuff. Except the stupid staff kept interrupting all of Demi's fights...

[Aurora Holiday]

Aurora shrugged, “It’s quite sad actually though, it’s simple stuff that can make winning a fight that much easier.” She rolled her eyes at the many times she had used simple knowledge of people’s weaknesses to beat them even quicker, given, she felt like she would have won anyway, it did end much quicker than she would have expected. She never really didn’t much research on earth manipulators, mostly due to the fact that there weren’t any at the school before, so if they did decide to spar today, then Aurora wouldn’t have that advantage, and she’d have to learn as she fought.

Great! The brunette thought to herself, She isn’t doing anything. She continued to listen to the younger girl as she explained what she had in mind for the day, though it wasn’t really set in stone. Aurora nodded; she hated learning new things and all the seemingly useless stuff that they wanted to teach her. That said, there were a few classes that she did pay lots of attention in. Aurora did pretty much the bare minimum, except in the classes she enjoyed which she did the best she could possibly do. “Yes, that stuff isn’t really fun. You’ll get used to it though.” Aurora had been going to schools since she was 6; and special schools since she was 13. She had been at Bellefonte for almost 2 years now and so she had gotten used to learning pointless stuff, especially stuff like math, ugh.

She nodded once more, “Yes, I’m more of an outside person too, or at least I try to be.” While Aurora enjoyed the internet and whatnot, she really like being outside, taking a walk through the forest or something. She just enjoyed the feeling of the wind running through her hair and the smell of everything; it was all just so serene. She shrugged though, “So, if you’re not busy today, there’s an arena on the campus, where people go and spar with others. I’ll be there tonight for sure and most other days too. I guess I’m asking, do you feel up to sparring with me sometime?” Aurora hoped she'd accept, though it didn't really matter to her, she wouldn't get her feelings hurt or anything if the girl didn't want to.

Aurora loved the arena, it was a wonderful place where she could test her skills against her other fellow students, and not get punished for beating them up. The brunette did her best never to seriously injure someone, though sometimes they needed to be taught a lesson. Most often when she was fighting in the arena, she’d only fight as hard as the other person, unless specifically asked to try her hardest. If Demi declined tonight’s offer, she’d see if the girl had a phone or not, and if she did, she’d give the girl her number. If she didn’t well, that’d be another adventure.

[Demi Smith]

Demi nearly snorted at the thought of the smaller things winning fights. The only time she liked that kind of talk was when she was one of the small people in question. It always came down to power and knowing what to do, anyone who said anything different had likely just lost and was trying to justify their choices. Demi did keep an eye on the other girl though. She'd obviously trained, and she sounded a ton less brainwashed then the rest of the school.

"Everyone keeps saying that," said Demi, looking away for a moment, her tone and expression darkening. She wasn't sure she really wanted to get used to it all. She wanted to be an Inherited, after all, not one of... these people. The thought of actually wanting to sit down and watch television or letting some of this stupid brainwashing stuff get into her system... it made Demi's stomach turn. she swallowed, turning just in time to see Aurora's nod.

"Sparring? You actually... want to?" Demi blinked, unable to hide her shock. Aurora had to be the first person she'd met here who actually wanted to fight her. Okay, there had been that guy she'd beaten up on nearly her first day here, but he'd been stupid and hadn't used his powers and had so been about to lose the fight and junk.

"I'm up for sparring anytime. That I know how to do," said Demi. She grinned then, a nearly feral expression, her head already swiveling toward the door, as if she would sprint off to train at the slightest bit of a hint that they'd be able to actually spar. Okay, yeah, against an air element that had years of training on her, which meant that Demi would be getting her butt kicked as often as not, but still: legitimate sparring, against someone who actually knew what she was doing, no less!