When it’s Raining Cats and Dogs... (Demi Smith)

[Andrew Wylen]

Andrew leaned against the window looking out at the storming grey clouds, rain trickled down the glass in rippling streaks that blurred the world beyond, trees waving to the wind, brush rustling uneasily and the grass bellow formed waves with every passing gust. He shook his head trying to focus on the science homework, half done in his lap, reading the question again.
‘What are some of the major differences between ionic and covalent compounds? Then name examples for both.’
Andrew stared at it for a few moments trying to remember as a muffled pattering continued, eventually giving up and moving onto the next one, circling the number to come back to. After another few minutes he found his mind wandering off in exhaustion again, it wasn’t that late, though he had yet to have had a full night’s sleep for what? The past week? Two weeks? Perhaps even a month? Andrew couldn’t actually recall the last time he hadn’t woken up in the middle of the night to some nightmare or another, not that they were any easier now, or any less terrifying every single time they happened. Part of him wanted to tell someone, another part of him still hung on to the rapidly dying hope that they would eventually go away. And what if he told someone and they were just as lost as he was? Was it normal for people with- powers? –he wasn’t sure there was much else to call them and “mutation” made him feel like some kind of scientific reject- none the less, Andrew doubted it.
He gave a half smile, well in the absolute very least his power was becoming a bit easier to control with the training, not that it mattered much when all you could do is turn into your average house pet and romp around on all fours… still it was something and Andrew had to admit it, excluding the pain and losing control, transforming was actually rather fun. It was hard to explain and he couldn’t really understand it either, though, when he wasn’t doing something absolutely humiliating like chewing up his homework or trying to eat beggin strips, there was something elating about just doing something for the enjoyment of it; taking off as fast as he could, tongue hanging out, running something up a tree, chasing his own tail… actually now that he thought about it, that last one had been really embarrassing. Though still. He was nowhere close to controlling it, far far from that, though it was nice to know at least something seemed to be going his way.
Suddenly Andrew looked up, startled to see someone else, hands fumbling over the science homework, papers toppling to the classroom floor.

“uh- h- hi” Andrew said quickly trying to scoop up the papers though not quite having seen who it was, eyes falling back to the floor shyly.

[Demi Smith]

Demi hated classes, especially ones like Science. When would she ever need to know anything associated with science? It certainly wasn't something that she'd need when she returned to the Inherited and took her rightful position, likely as a Honer or some kind of protector, since Demi was becoming increasingly convinced that they needed that. And where did Science factor in? Certainly not with anything Demi planned. Still, they'd told her that she needed to go to the science classroom anyway, do some extra work, try to catch up over the summer. Worse: she wasn't allowed to touch any chemicals or anything that was at least halfway interesting. No, she had to look at the various textbooks and figure out which ones she needed to brush up on.

Someone else was already there though, someone who looked to be about Demi's age. She'd stood there, still filthy, still draped in her homespun clothes that looked woefully out of place, and stared at him for a bit, trying to figure out what he would be doing there. Demi had come to two possible conclusions: He was some kind of freak who liked science and was there of his own free will, or he was like her: forced to be there by the idiots.

"Are you here because they made you or because you want to?" she asked, jerking her chin toward him. She needed to know to figure out how to react...

[Andrew Wylen]

Andrew glanced upward taken by surprise at the blatant words, papers half shuffled in his hands with edges poking out every side like a rather flat porcupine. He blinked, not sure at first if the girl’s appearance was simply a trick of the room’s dim light, or simply just his own exhaustion, but no, after a second or two he saw that was not the case, rather it seemed she was layered in what looked like… dirt?

A brown coating covered the girls form, in places the soil had been caked on in cracking layers, while some portions received only a thin dust, giving the girl the look of a body that had recently torn its way out from the grave. In fact the only parts of her free from the grime were two stone grey eyes gazing towards Andrew with a cold indifference.

“M- Me?” he said, realizing with a shock that she had been waiting for him to reply. “I- uh- no- I’m j- just trying to catch up on m- my work” he stuttered, gesturing awkwardly to the pile in his hands and nearly dropping it in the process. Pulling the shuffled papers a bit closer Andrew asked innocently “uhm- are you alright? I m- mean, you just look like you fell in the m- mud or- or- something.”

[Demi Smith]

Trying to catch up? "Did they make you?" asked Demi, looking around. "I wouldn't be here unless they made me," she added, though she supposed that was already evident. She said that quite loudly with every motion, and her disgusted expression. It wasn't solely reserved for the room and the situation though: she kept looking at Andrew with something barely above contempt. Demi figured him to be a mutant, but he looked scrawny, not at all ready for life, let alone for life as a mutant.

The stammering didn't help that image: "Quit stammering: you sound like an idiot," said Demi. She walked over to a desk, sitting atop it without even thinking twice about it. She reached down to tug the rough shirt a little, wanting to make sure everything was in place. "And I always look like this. It's part of my training and power, see?" Demi rolled an arm in a semi-smooth gesture then, peeling away a good deal of the dirt layer coating it. Soon she had a spinning ball of earth coating her hand, which she then held up for Andrew to examine.

[Andrew Wylen]

“I- uh- n- no, I guess not, I- I’m just trying to get a decent grade” Andrew stammered, gaze falling beneath the girl’s own disgusted stare that she flung about the room with malice until it finally rounded back upon him; eyes holding the sense of one seeing something wholly beneath themselves.

 
The next words pierced like daggers as the girl continued, Andrew almost able to feel the blood rush to his face in embarrassment and trying hard not to stutter –though actually just making it worse- he responded. “s- sorry- I- I- would- i- if I could- b- but it- it j- just kind of h- happens.” He gulped, wanting to say more, but voice failing him, settling instead on shuffling his feat, trying not to look straight at her; partly to conceal the humiliation, partly out of shame, and partly because what she said struck rather close to what he sometimes thought himself. Not that no one had ever said such a thing before, infact it happened all the time, though just like the dreams, that didn’t make it any easier, especialy when he hadn’t really been expecting it.

Thunder cracked outside of the window causing Andrew to give a startled jump, the girl simply turning on her heal, stomped to a row of desks, then pulling herself atop one without a word.

Great, he thought giving his head a slight shake, getting scared from a bit of thunder, what next, vacuum cleaners? He put his papers down on a nearby table, no answer coming, but even so the storm went on, the girl, still scowling rolled up an arm of her dress, and smeared some dirt into one palm, before speaking again. Meanwhile he said nothing, not even after she finished, a small dirt ball spinning like some kind of putrid planet in the middle of an outstretched hand; flecks of dirt shifting upon its surface in dusty clouds as rivets in the soft ground wound and morphed into a slowly rotating mass. Finally after a several seconds had passed Andrew managed to ask.
‘s- so y- you uhm- control dirt?”

[Demi Smith]

Demi stared at the guy, still not getting it. Who cared what kind of grade they got on the stupid stuff here? Maybe on something that mattered, like training or whatever. This guy clearly had his priorities out of whack, probably had some stupid power or something. Sometimes Demi didn't get that, how come some people just had dumb powers.

Or maybe he was just dumb. He kept stuttering, insisting that he couldn't help it. So Demi kept glaring, tempted to say that she couldn't help it either. She really didn't care that he couldn't meet her gaze and that she'd done something that nearly humiliated him or something. That was his problem, not hers. Demi didn't break the hard stare until she heard the crack of thunder. The noise made her jump and turn toward the rain, sneering at it. Water, lots of it. So much for any plans Demi had on going outside in the near future. Rain practically made her sick, particularly that much of it. The only upshot was that she could possibly pull a bunch of mud around her, which she supposed would work alright.

At least the idiot seemed even jumpier than she, which she figured. She did her little dirt thing, finally closing her fist and letting it puff around her. "More than dirt, dummy," she said. "I'm a terrakinetic. That means I can move anything made of, like, rock and dirt and stuff. Dirt's just easier because it's lighter," and it seemed to just be easier for Demi overall. She didn't want to add that part, mention that moving rock just seemed to be harder for her. Being a dirt-bender sounded stupid; earth-bending though... "That's why I always keep some on me though, so I always have something to use against anyone," she said, nodding. She clenched her fist, taking a breath and gathering some up. She pulled it into a small ball and flicked it, aiming for Andrew's cheek, hoping to tag him there with the little dust ball.

[Andrew Wylen]

The girl smashed the spinning globe of dirt into a dust that then curled about her fist in a hazy smoke, before looking back towards Andrew with a snide glare. She spoke, explaining, though not without first spitting at him yet another insult that made his hands clench together and face turn just a shade closer to maroon. Girl telling him she was a terrakinetic, an ability that allowed her to move anything like stone or soil, then went on to say why she was covered with soot in the first place, dirt gathering against her arm then a small pellet went soaring through the air with a whoosh and hit its mark.

Andrew’s cheek stung and he retreated a few steps blinking, it wasn’t the mild pain that caused his fear though, but rather it was a sudden rush that surged through his body, muscles going tense and in the corner of his mind a wall rose up, just out of reach yet rising closer. Burning, swallowing consuming, it built upon the pain, until it threatened to shatter into a thousand pieces of his mind.
Thankfully though, the force wasn’t very powerful comparatively, and while he only barley managed to shove it off, struggling, eyes darting across the class room, after a few seconds, the wall sank again. Andrew let out a shaky breath, quickly saying “p- please- d- don’t do that.” Sending a pleading look toward the girl, hoping that she wouldn't do so again, and not entirely sure, if she did, that he would be able to stop it a second time.

[Demi Smith]

Something felt off for a moment there. Demi had been watching Andrew, wantin to see him whimper or something at her little flick. He hadn't. instead, he seemed to go... tense or something, and Demi wondered for a moment. She didn't know his power: for all she knew, he could, like, go insane and rip her to shreds. That actually sounded like something fun to face though, and she'd probably be able to hold him off long enough or one of the teachers to show up...

Just as she'd started gathering up more dirt to try again, smirking as she did, she heard him speak. It was so pathetic, so sad, and accompanied with such a pathetic look that Demi stopped. She felt something twist within her for a moment. Her brain told her this should be disgusting, and some part inside felt that too, wanted to punch him in the face for being a simpering coward not worth of his superior genes. However, another part of her saw something... else, someone who should be one of her, a mutant, and should be protected, regardless of what happened. He wasn't some pathetic human; he was a mutant, if a crappy, weak one.

"Stop blubbering," she said, lowering her arm and letting the dirt slide back onto her. the process wasn't quite perfect: several bits of it fell to the floor. "Creation, but you're a wuss. How are you going to Inherit anything?" she spit in his direction before turning, looking back at the books and stuff.

[Andrew Wylen]

Andrew let out a short sigh of relief, true, he knew that he had sounded like perhaps the most pathetic looser on the face of the planet, but she had no idea how close he had just come to transforming and- and- what? Andrew wasn’t sure, he was better at controlling his ability now, though would that be enough to stop another incident like when he had first transformed? Maybe, but even if not, this girl could move dirt and stone, how exactly would he possibly hurt her anyway? That didn’t make any sense, so why was he so scared of transforming again? Andrew had done it a few times and while he didn’t exactly want to humiliate himself in front of this stranger that also still didn’t explain as to why he was so terrified of it happening. He pondered the question, a small voice in the corner of his mind nagging, you know exactly why.

Andrew tried to push it away, ignore it, but that didn’t happen, instead the voice merely grew stronger, until, finally, he seceded to the thought. He did know why… not that he cared to admit it even to himself, no, he tried to think of everything, but the actual transformation when he was using his powers, and besides that, the ability to control them, to use them, that was all getting better, though the pain? Well… getting used to your insides boiling, your bones bending, muscles twisting, and every cell ripping itself apart, was just a bit harder. The experience lasted for just a couple seconds, and afterword’s he hardly remembered any of it though when he was about to transform, the knowledge of what was waiting still choked him up, like now for instance. Usually he had simply transformed anyway, though when he thought about it, or let himself recall the all-encompassing pain, he felt like he was a kid on the diving board who didn’t know how to swim.

A feeling of guilt clenched his gut, I should be over all this by now, he thought, the dreams, the stuttering, transforming, shouldn’t I be able to move on like everyone else? Not get so caught up in all of it, how does everyone else just blow this stuff away? I’m definitely not the only one who’s gotten the crummy end of the stick though then why does it seem I’m the only one who feels it? In the far corner of his mind again something said, perhaps this is just you? Your human, doesn’t everyone have their flaws? But he wasn’t “human”, Andrew knew it, he was a mutant, cut and dry, wasn’t that why SPECTER was around? Wasn’t that why his sister had told him the previous night over the phone that, if he did come home over the summer, not to say anything about his “problem” to her boyfriend? Why Andrews’s life had been ripped inside out then tossed across the country? Because he was a mutant. Not a flying, superpower flinging, laser shooting mutant you see on TV or at the movies but a mutant who couldn’t control himself, had a power that seemed only there to humiliate him and was unable to make or keep a relationship even if the fate of the world depended on it.

He gulped knowing not all of this was as bad as he made it out to be, that he was exhausted, everything might look better in the morning, preferably after a sleep undefiled by nightmares of being ripped apart limb from limb or rather buried alive by faceless figures, but at the moment he didn’t care. Andrew slumped back against the nearest desk, glancing out the window again. the sky was grey and formless, separated only by slightly differing hues that swirled together, giving the entire sky a simple flat look as rain spilled from above, the trees tore at each over to ward away blankets of wind, threatening to rip them from their sturdy roots, bellows barraging the pane of glass as well, muffled guffaws of air able to be heard even from where Andrew sat.

He didn’t move for a few seconds, though after about a minute had passed, he turned back towards demi, one of her comments oddly out of place. Andrew didn’t really want to have her insult him yet again though, at this point, he doubted the girl could acquire much more disdain then she already displayed, so why not? He figured, before asking with a stammer.
“I- Inherit?”

[Demi Smith]

Demi didn't even bother looking at Andrew while he sat about, not while she heard him sitting, not until he spoke. She turned then, looking over her shoulder. He looked pale, a type of paleness that Demi recognized. She didn't know science for crap, but Demi was about as good at recognizing powers and their issues as some of the staff here. She actually turned to look at Andrew, frowning.

"Your ability's kicking your butt,' she told him, flicking a finger, "and since you're all buggy, you probably just got it. I've only had mine for a little over a month," and she grinned, since she knew her training and control over it was incredible for that short of time. Then again, that's what happened when you learned a specific art to control your mutant abilities, grew up in a community of mutants, were taught about mutant powers from your birth, then went into an extensive, two week course of training that involved sleep deprivation and routinely getting your butt kicked by someone better than you. Even still, Demi knew she had a knack for her power, for that and fighting and, well, that was pretty much it.

What else did she need though?

She sighed. "As for your dumb question: Inheriting's what all us mutants are gonna do. We're better than humans because we've got powers. We are to them what they are to monkeys," all of which was standard Inherited doctrine. "So we all are granted an Inheritance, to rule over the stupid humans when they're eventually Purged from the world or something. Though I think God's supposed to do that part," mostly because they didn't tell her all the details. She couldn't be in a position to spill too much to heathen outsiders like, well, like Andrew.

[Andrew Wylen]

Andrew’s mouth opened slightly in surprise as the girl spoke, guessing his problem almost instantly, then, and perhaps even more astonishingly, she stated how long she had had her own “ability”. In no way did he think that he knew a lot about powers, yet even so, “a little over a month” and already she could do that? Andrew was having a hard enough time attempting just the basic aspects of his power and it had been what? Nearly two months?

Needless to say her control seemed amazing, almost, in fact, creepily so; a feeling that was only reinforced by her next comments. “Purge”? “Rule over”? All of a sudden an oddly eerie sense seemed to settle over his stomach, almost having to resist the urge to throw up, or rather pull back his chair to get away from the girl. He took a deep breath glancing back to her, eyes having gone rather wide.

“Y- Your saying, t- that you want to take over the world?” he asked in astonishment, wondering if perhaps this was some type of sick joke. It sounded crazy, this girl seemed around 14, about his age, sitting on the edge of a school desk and talking avidly about mass genocide and the enslavement of the general population without a care in the world.

[Demi Smith]

"Not just me, but all the Inherited. Well, technically all mutants will probably end up there in the end, so I guess you're okay too. It's mostly just the Inherited though, because we'll be ready and in the best position to survive the Purge," Demi nodded. She grinned at the guy, who looked like he wanted to faint or wet himself or something. "That's because we're obviously better than everyone else. Just look at me: I've barely had my power, and I'm already awesome at it. That's because I've been training to get it for years."

She puffed up at that. What she didn't tell Andrew, but which was probably already obvious even to him, was that she hadn't exactly developed anything else. Her social skill were pathetic, she clearly had a warped view of the world, and, well, let's not even go into her basic knowledge set. Still, to look at her, you'd think that her people had already wiped out the human race and she was standing triumphant by a throne.

[Andrew Wylen]

The girl almost seemed to inflate with pride as she responded, feeling in Andrew’s gut twisting and clenched as he warded of the mounting thought that he was going to be sick. Demi didn’t catch on, smile widening; she looked at him, as if unable to conceive how anyone could possibly disagree with her. Though Andrew did; true, he was a mutant though, did that, as she said, make him better than anyone else? No, he thought, he was abnormal, not supreme, he hadn’t asked to turn into a Labrador and he had never wanted to have nightmares every single night, it was just simply chance. I could just as easily still be back at my old school, or home now as I could be here, he thought, in fact part of him wished he was back home, wishing he hadn’t manifested, wishing he was just normal like everyone else. But he wasn’t, instead he was here, at Bellefonte, this storming night as he listened to the girl across from him muse on about her morbid wish.

Andrews fingers quivered, not at all sure what to say, wondering if he could bolt to the door before a thousand pieces of dirt shot at him like bullets. He doubted it and so instead remained seated, Adams apple bobbing as he gulped, asking tentatively.

“Y- You realize y- you’re talking about killing people-? L- Like- a- a lot of people r- right? D- Don’t y- you think that’s wrong at all?”

[Demi Smith]

No, Demi did not notice Andrew's discomfort. She remained woefully ignorant of anything the other mutant was feeling, far too wrapped up and caught up in the future glory that awaited her and everyone who sided with her. She could just see herself in the appropriate position of power that she so rightly deserved, having been one of the Inherited and all.

Then Andrew spoke, drawing Demi's attention back to him. She rolled her eyes. "it's not really murdering them," she said. "It's like, well, something is gonna wipe them out or something. I'm not gonna stomp around and attack them or something, because that would be stupid. Not that I wouldn't if I could get away with it," she paused, readjusting to look as impressive as possible. "Because I totally could. Kill someone, I mean. Plus, they're, like, monkeys. You wouldn't be all worried about killing monkeys would you?"

she waited for a moment, then rolled her eyes, blowing out her lips. "No, no you totally would. You'd be one of those saying we needed to protect the monkeys or something..."

[Andrew Wylen]

Andrew blinked at how demi threw about that she would easily kill people if she had her choice, just so long as she “got away with it” leading him to push his desk back a few inches as a shiver passed down the boy's spine. He wasn’t sure about monkeys, he was squeamish about killing anything in general really, though he wasn’t necessarily against it; such as, he wasn’t vegetarian and he definitely knew where hamburgers came from, but still there was a difference between killing, like, a cow, or as she put it, a monkey, then there was to killing a living breathing person, didn’t she understand that? Andrew wasn’t sure, maybe she simply didn’t know what she was saying, or perhaps she simply didn’t care. Either way, he was terrified letting out a breath, he wrung his hands then gulped again, glancing towards the door more than once.

“W- Well” he said with a note of hesitation. “I- It sure sounds like murder to me.”