did the plants move?

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Did the plants just move? Zoe had been staring at them for quite some time now, watching the light as it played across the leaves, shooting through the canopy and bathing the undergrowth in a sort of mixed light. Zoe had long since lost track of the actual amount of time she'd been perched on the fallen log in the woods, her gaze on nature around her, the camera coming up less and less often as time went along. It felt nice, just being surrounded by the calm of nature. No demands, no noise, no people to distract. It felt... so calming.

That calm had seemed slightly disturbed, however, when Zoe thought she saw some plants... shifting. She'd been watching for a while: she knew what it looked like when animals or wing played with the trees. She'd come to understand those subtle movements and more or less identify them. She'd also been around mutants for several months now, certainly long enough to start recognizing the signs of mutant abilities being used when they were put into action.

Even still, she couldn't be entirely sure what this was about. Zoe hesitantly rose up, fighting the fear she felt gripping her stomach. She was brave, or at least, braver then she kept feeling. She could do this. She just... had to take a few steps forward. She even tried speaking: "H-h-hello?" she called, her voice wavering and warbling more than stuttering. "Is someone there?" It was the forest on the Academy grounds, after all, so it would make sense...

[Sage Amberlyne]

Sage was outside, playing in the woods when he had no one to be with and didn't have classes it was just where he was normally found. He smiled humming softly, hand gently grazing over the plants he walked by. They always seemed happy to have any sort of attention whether it was talking to them or touching them they were always happy to have him around. It made him feel better, glad the plants of the school accepted him now. It'd been terribly lonely his first few weeks here with not one--not even the plants--willing to talk to him.

As time progressed the plants always seemed eager to greet him, moving the smallest bits to lean closer to where he was. So when he headed down the path he normally took it was no surprise that the plants along it started turning in the direction he was coming from. But what made him pause was a voice. He blinked, that was new. Normally there wasn't anyone out here... He slowed his steps but continued forward. Eventually leaning around a tree he noticed the other. He couldn't say he recognized her. "H...hi.." he answered softly, standing mostly behind the large tree, if he needed to he could turn and run quickly.

He noticed the plants quivering, getting stressed with him feeling so nervous and a bit afraid. He didn't mean to upset them, he silently soothed the plants, talking to them in his head as he always had since he was young. Eventually the plants grew still once more, and his eyes flicked back to the girl.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Upon seeing the young boy, Zoe relaxed considerably. A smile came onto her face, tinged with relief. Just a boy: she certainly didn't have any reason to be afraid of someone like this. Zoe took a few steps forward, only to hesitate, realizing that the boy had stammered his own introduction and looked about as awkward and shy as Zoe herself so often felt.

She stood there for a few moments, shifting, noticing his gaze upon her. Zoe bit her lip and looked around the area, seeing the various plantlife and what have you. The whole scene just felt quite peaceful, relaxing, even. She took another breath and looked to the boy.

"Um, I'm Zoe," she said, nodding and moving one hand from behind her back to sort of wave at him, "I was, well, just walking around and--I thought I saw something move over here," she hesitated again, her hands going to her camera. The gloved digits began moving around the device. Zoe looked down at it for a moment before looking back up at the boy. "was, um, that you? the plants? I'm not, um, going to be upset or anything. I mean, we are at a school for, uh, mutants," She flushed. That was obvious, and one would think that after several months here, Zoe would have adjusted to talking about it. No such luck.

[Sage Amberlyne]

Sage watched as he stepped forward, staying where he felt pretty safe behind the tree, still leaning--granted a bit awkward staying there for so long--around the tree to see her. "Oh... They uhm.. Sense me coming and get excited.. I'm sorry if they bothered you." not knowing she might not realize he meant the plants.

Seeing as she only had a camera, he was pretty sure she meant him no harm, so he slowly moved, stepping around the tree, but a hand lingered gently touching the bark of the base. His head tilted to a side curiously, "You've been out here a while.." he stated softly, once again not realizing it might startle her that he knew this. Really the plants were chatter boxes and loved to gossip about anything. He smiled gently at their next words and he was commenting before he thought about it, "They feel special when you take their photos.." he smiled warmly, standing, hands clasping together behind him as he rocked on his feet a bit to keep from standing in one spot to long.

A vine from the tree he stood by seemed to drop from the branches above, most would jump thinking it was a snake, but Sage stayed put, the tree told him it was moving its vine, so he knew it was coming. His finger just slowly raised fingers sort of petting the vine as it curled around his fingers a bit..

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

The plants sensed him coming? Zoe blinked, not sure what to make of that. Then again, she'd heard that some people could communicate with animals and such and said similar things. Those were animals though, not... plants.

"I--" she began as the boy declared that she'd been there a while, a slight flush coming to her cheeks. Of course she had: Zoe had come out here to avoid people, to avoid, well, just about everything. As he said that they enjoyed her being there, she blinked. The plants... had feelings? Then again, Zoe didn't exactly see why they wouldn't. Nobody really understood them or anything.

"It must be, um, very interesting," she said. She jumped a little as the vine came down, taking a step back. Zoe's wide brown eyes went to the green, tracing it all the way up. she swallowed. "They... talk? Do they, um, have personalities or something?" Zoe had always figured that communication with plants would just be hard to understand, seeing as they had to behave differently than humans. Did they even think? She stared at the vine, wondering how it even knew that she took pictures of it...

[Sage Amberlyne]

Sage looked at her blinking a few times when she started to speak, but she stopped. His head tilting to a side in curiosity as he watched the other girl, he wasn't sure if she was older than him or not, and Sage was a horrible guess of age, and he knew better than to 'insult a lady' by assuming she's older. .. His sister taught him that one.

Sage twitched when she jumped, slightly startled that she'd do so, his eyes on her as he watched her... "Well... The out loud like you or I... I hear them .. in my head.." If it hadn't been for the time he's spent here learning everyone here had a 'gift' of sorts, he was slowly getting more comfortable about talking about it.

Sage blinked but laughed a bit, "Well... no personalities like we do per say. But each different type of plant can have a strong opinion on other plants like people do. Plants can be at times....racists, then others absolutely fine with everything else." He tried to explain in a way she'd understood, he doubted she ever heard of a plantcist before...

Sage didn't know how the plants knew things, they just did and they relayed it to him, that was all he knew.. He really didn't know much about his power really, he was still learning to get a better control over it, let alone understand it.

Sage turned his head then looked back at her... "What... what brought you out here?" he asked softly.. the 'what' the plants didn't know, and he was curious... Was it that she liked nature? She'd be the first other than himself to his knowledge.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Hearing the plants in his head... "That must be interesting," said Zoe, almost to herself. She looked at the vine again, wondering what that would be like. it certainly sounded better than what she went through daily. Sage didn't have to close himself off from other people or anything like that. It did sound like he needed to deal with racist plants from time to time, but, well, everyone had to deal with something like that.

Just as Zoe wondered which plants hated them the most, Sage asked her a question. She nearly jumped, almost having forgotten he was there. She met his gaze for a few moments, blinked, and then looked away, flushing. She ran her hand along her side, chewed her lip, and finally seemed to come to something like an answer: "I, well, I, um, wanted to get away from people. Sometimes there's just... too much to deal with. Too many people, all of them, well, um, just being I guess."

Zoe took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. "It's sometimes better just being out here, alone with your thoughts. I was also hoping to get a few pictures of the scenery, maybe...." she trailed off, rubbing at her arm again. Did that sound lame? It felt lame. But it was the truth...

[Sage Amberlyne]

Sage smiled softly, nodding a bit, "The scenery huh? are there any plants you don't have photos of yet?" he couldn't help but ask curiously. He had a few seeds of plants that didn't normally grow around here, he liked having seeds with him, really his room was nothing but potted plants now back at the dorm. They kept him company when he was at work on the homework he had to do for the 'normal' schooling.

He patted the Vine before he let it drop from his shoulder moving over towards some flowers kneeling in front of them smiling softly as he let a hand gently trace along the petals, "I mean.. I don't have a lot of their seeds... But, I have some that don't normally grow out here.. I can't do tree's though... unless you wanted a sapling and wanted to carry me back to the dorms." he admitted sheepishly. He always passed out when trying to make tree's grow...

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

"Um, I'm not... sure,' admitted Zoe, fidgeting yet again. She didn't exactly know enough about plants to really tell. She shuffled again, looking away for a moment and chewing her lip. She heard Sage talk about possibly having some seeds or something, which made it sound like he could grow them. Yet again, Zoe felt a pang of jealousy deep within. How was it that some people got such wonderful abilities, while she was cursed with a touch that effectively killed?

"I, uh,' she finally said, turning back, seeing his own sheepish look, "I usually, um, take pictures of, well, people. Often are people. Mutant people. Doing, um, their stuff," she said. Zoe took a deep breath and unwound her camera from around her neck. Soon her gloved hands were darting over the buttons, flicking through images. Finally she located what she was looking for, the same picture she often showed.

"See?" she twisted the camera so that Sage could look at the image. It showed a young man standing in the middle of a field at night, his head tilted upward. A great gout of flame shot out of his mouth, cutting into the dark air and illuminating his face slightly. "I, uh, got this one, um, a week or so ago?" she wasn't certain, but she had it now. She fidgeted yet again, once more chewing her lip.

[Sage Amberlyne]

Sage blinked, turning when he heard the clicking of the camera, slowly standing he stepped close enough to see it, but kept his distance since she seemed nervous. "It's a wonderful shot.. You must be good with the settings to get it to show up at night especially with the extra light source!" Any pictures he tried to take at night--granted with his cell phone were usually dark, or they were over flashed from the camera trying to over compensate. Of course Sage wasn't very tech savvy.

He hummed softly, rocking back on his heels before he turned smiling softly, "Sorry mine isn't as cool as that one." he admitted softly. Although breathing fire, he wondered if the other had problems with food always being bland. Granted they might not have anything to do with it, he wondered why his mind went that route. He turned his head a bit, humming a bit softly, more to himself and the plants than anything else. But he stopped looking back over to her...

She seemed so nervous... Was it his fault? He turned some.. "Would.. would you like me to go?" he asked gently. It was nice being around someone to talk to, but... she seemed more nervous than him, and that was surprising to him. He wondered then, what was her gift? Was that what made her nervous?

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe smiled, nearly flushing as Sage praised her photographic skills. She knew she had them, and she was particularly pleased with this photo, even if the subject had thought that it could've used some more work. She figured that she might try a little more when it came to actually printing it off and writing the poetry on it, though that would take a while yet.

She looked up as Sage apologized, blinking. Talking to plants and getting them to move wasn't as cool as breathing fire? Zoe opened her mouth, ready to argue otherwise, only to be caught offguard by Sage's question. Her eyes went wide and she shook her head, even bringing a hand up to wave.

"No! It's okay, really. I, was, um, I usually take pictures of people, like I said, so, it's okay, really. I'm just not... great when it comes to actually talking to people," she shifted, looking away again. her fingers played along the camera, nearly drumming on it, while she nibbled at her lip slightly. "I could take yours if you'd like? Your picture, that is. Maybe talking to plants or something? I mean, I do think that's at least as cool as breathing fire and what have you..." she trailed off, shifting her feet again, looking at Sage shyly, still not quite able to fully bring her head up to face him directly.

[Sage Amberlyne]

Sage was quiet a moment, well as long as he wasn't bothering her, he didn't mind staying, he smiled a bit giving a faint nod, "okay.." he looked over to a plant before looking back at her blushing as she said she could take his picture. He blushed, "w-well.. I... It'd look... ya know, normal?" well he never talked out loud to a plant. It was always in his head, so really he'd look like anyone that was looking at plants, there was nothing special about him. At least she did have a digital camera so he wouldn't waste any of her film, but he would still feel horrible taking up her memory card space. He was nothing special.

He turned some looking to the plant frowning a bit, grumbling a bit in his mind at it. Hush you he scolded the plant softly. The particular plant was one of the flowers growing by one of the taller tree's. It was vain, loved having people look at it, even if it was your average run of the mill flower. So it was saying to do it and to do it with it. Really... He honestly didn't want her to waste her efforts on him... He tilted his head, "What would be a good subject, or rather subjects.. I met the.. uhm twins, Jasper and Casper.. now what they do, that's really cool." he smiled looking to her again.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

"That's what you think," said Zoe almost chirpily. She favored Sage with a smile and nodded as he moved toward the plant. She brought the camera up and looked at it through the lens, balancing the scene before her, picturing how it would end up when she pressed the right button and captured it all onto film. She saw him moving, practically felt him talking to the flower, took a few pictures of it, already picturing the words that would appear about his head, scrawled in her own hand:

silent conversations
blossom to blossom
unspoken words
bloom

"Who?" repeated Zoe, pulling away, blinking at Sage, the sudden shift from her own interior world into the real one causing her to be distracted for a few moments. "I've never, um, heard of them..." she bit her lip, fidgeting. She hadn't actually thought of looking up people but, well, if someone offered, then maybe she should? She looked over at Sage for a moment, considering. Wait, she should focus on now.

"You make a really good subject though," she insisted, taking a few steps close to him and showing the picture, "see?"

[Sage Amberlyne]

Sage blinked a few times, hearing the camera, made him blush a bit, eventually looking over when she spoke again... "Casper and Jasper.. they're.." he thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to describe... "Well, first they're twins... But they can do some pretty amazing things. They move fast, and they're just strong over all in general I suppose." he remembered the tree ranting about rocks getting thrown at it to chip away at it.

Sage blushed a bit more when she said he was a good subject and was showing him the picture, "I-if you say so.." he stated softly, blushing more. He never thought himself as photogenic, but if she thought it was good, that was all and good, long as she liked her own photo, that's what mattered, since opinions always varied from person to person.

Sage turned a bit smiling gently, "I'm sure I could probably introduce you to the twins if you'd like... It's been awhile since I've last seen them, it'd be nice to visit them." he smiled gently, not sure if she'd want to, but perhaps he could go visit them either way, he would like to go see them again after all. It would be nice to catch up again and see how they've been, what they've been up to. He hoped they hadn't beaten up any more plants, but if they had the plants probably would of complained at him about it. So he really didn't think they have done as such.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe listened and waited patiently while Sage worked his way through it. Twins, well, that explained why the two had such similar names. Fast and strong... that sounded powerful, sure, but Zoe couldn't help but think that it also sounded very... generic. Those were just the sort of general powers that every other superhero seemed to have in the comics or movies.

Naturally Zoe didn't verbalize that, especially with Sage still squirming and looking abashed. She smiled encouragingly at him, wishing that he'd paused to actually look at the pictures. Zoe resolved to show Sage the finished products some day, maybe even that art show she kept saying she should be doing.

"I would love to meet them,' said Zoe, half meaning it. She couldn't quite keep all the waver out of her voice, though she tried most valiantly. She looked around for a moment, her eyes again going to the vine. "But for now, I'd still like to take a few more pictures of you," she looked back at him. "Could you, um, do the plants sometimes do things for you? I don't want to hurt them or anything, but it would be quite splendid to get one to, well, pose for us or something..."