looking at the building

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe frowned as she tilted her head up, looking at the building. She didn't really think it looked that fantastic, not now. But when she raised her camera up to her eye, holding it tight within her fingers, tight enough that her knuckles nearly grew white, it suddenly looked prettier somehow. The whole thing had this strangely majestic angle to it, as though it had been here some time and would continue to defy people for some time after everyone else had left. Which was rather silly really, because it was just an old building tucked away in an old school that nobody really knew about anyway.

She was going to take a picture of it anyway. Zoe adjusted her grip on her camera, twisting it to get a better look through the lens. There was the building again, but not quite right. Frowning, Zoe took a step back. Not quite good enough. A step left. Almost. Another tiny step back, and Zoe felt something soft brush against her. Heat rose to her cheeks, terror to her chest, and she squeaked, flailing and pushing away. She had gloves on, and a long-sleeved t-shirt, black with a black and white design on it, and she had black jeans, so unless the person had somehow managed to touch her throat, there shouldn't have been an issue.

That didn't stop Zoe's reflexes. She flailed for a bit, mumbling apologies. Without looking she stepped backward. Her shoe slid across the ground and she felt herself tumbling backward. And soon after that, Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe sat in the mud, feeling the cold chill of the wet earth sinking into the seat of her jeans. She swallowed hard and tried not to cry, feeling embarrassed. She checked her camera though, wanting to make sure that everything there was alright. The camera, this one, was irreplaceable; Zoe's jeans were decided replaceable, and she'd probably recover.

But it all looked good. Which just left Zoe fighting against tears in the mud, mostly feeling sorry for herself.

[Deleted]

After finally putting all his thing away Shiloh decided to go check out his new...home? Yeah, he'd be living here now until he graduated he supposed. Sure, it kinda sucked that he was away from his family but he decided it was for the best. He was different and now he was with people like him. Woah...people...like...him. The thought confused him at first. He never really had a connection with anyone before but now...everyone here shared at least one thing. They all had powers.

His first sightseeing adventure was the courtyard, why not? He thought it would be a pretty good place to start. After walking into the area he looked around for a moment. "Okay..." He muttered to himself as he saw all the students walking around. He took a deep breath and continued forward until he saw someone taking a picture of the school. Shiloh tilted his head a bit, why was she doing that? As a keepsake? Oh, maybe she was a photographer. That was pretty cool. Wait! She was falling! Shiloh made a move to go and help her but stopped. Human interaction, one of his downfalls.

"Uh...are...are you okay?" He asked, moving towards her, noticing the sadness in her eyes. "Can...uh...is there anything I can do to help?"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe fought the tears valiantly. This was not how she wanted one of her first memories upon arriving to this place to go. She looked up and saw someone, a boy, he had to be about twelve or so by the look of him, offering a hand out to her. She flinched and shook her head. She pushed against the ground, sliding against the mud as she fought to get herself upright. Her feet slipped a little, and she was pretty sure she was covered in mud. No, wait, scratch that: her feet slipped a lot, and Zoe was right back where she started.

"You could get a stick," she mumbled, her voice barely audible. She licked her lips and looked up at him without really looking at him, sort of looking out of the corner of her eye. "I don't think I can get up on my own," her English accent was starting to get stronger, not helped by the fact that she sounded practically pathetic about now, "and I'm... we can't touch."

That nearly made her flush. God, she hated her stupid ability. Why did something like this have to happen to her anyway? As if life wasn't hard enough without something like that happening. No, no, Zoe shouldn't have a pity party, not now, not in front of some kid. She took a deep breath, trying to steel herself, set her emotional house in order, as it were.

[Deleted]

"A stick." He repeated. "A stick, right." Shiloh looked around, trying to find anything that could help her. Sure, he wasn't the greatest with people but when someone needed help he was just gunna stand there like a bump on a log. He heard the tail bit, they couldn't touch? Uhhh, okay. Weird. Whatever though, that didn't matter at the moment.

"Oh!" He exclaimed as he found a branch that should have been thick enough to help her up. The boy grabbed it and brought it over to the girl. "Found this..." He muttered, brandishing it in front of her. "Uh..." Shiloh gulped. "Just grab it I guess and I'll pull you out..." He sure hoped he could at least. The kid wasn't muscular at all, the word scrawny came to mind when you saw him. He gave a silent prayer, hoping he could help her out of the mud. "Grab the branch..."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe sighed and watched as Shiloh went searching for the stick. She wasn't sure why she'd even bothered him; she guessed it was because he'd offered to help. Right now, Zoe did feel pretty much in need of help, but this was just humiliating. Zoe wasn't sure why, but she felt the urge to pick up her camera and take a quick picture of the young man, getting him right as he pulled up the rather impressive stick.

The young man then brandished the stick in front of her. Zoe nodded, releasing the camera to reach out for the offered wood. She felt it through her gloved fingers and sincerely hoped that it wouldn't be rough enough to tear a hole through the fabric. That had far too much potential to be bad, and this situation was already awkward enough as it was. When the boy said he'd help her up, Zoe had to look at him, her expression somewhere between doubtful and reassuring. "If you think you can," she said, her tone reflecting it. She grabbed with both hands and pulled herself. Zoe wasn't going to let him totally lift her up; maybe if he'd been older, she might have tried something like that, but she'd feel even worse if she let this boy lift her up entirely on his own.

Her feet were already sliding on the wet ground again and Zoe had to fight against the urge to cry, feeling the liquid frustration bubbling up in her eyes already.

[Deleted]

"Y-yeah, I got it." He said with a nod as he started to pull her towards himself. 'Come on Shiloh, you can do this.' He mentally repeated to himself over and over as he tried his best to pull the girl from the mud. Maybe he should work out more or something, this really shouldn't have been hard at all! After straining himself, he finally was able to pull her from the mud. "Are...uh...you okay?" The boy asked, clumsily pushing the hair out of his face.

This was impressive for Shiloh, a record even! He hadn't even been here a few hours and he rescued someone from trouble, but most importantly, he was talking to her! "I...umm...my name's Shiloh." He said, nervously rubbing his arm. "Sorry about your camera...is it okay?"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe's shoes kept sliding, but she kept pulling, working with Shiloh to get herself as upright as she possibly could. The boy seemed pretty determined to help too, and together they managed to get Zoe upright. She did slip and slide a little as she fully righted herself, but a quick hop took her away from the slick ground and onto the paved walkway. As soon as her feet touched sidewalk, Zoe looked down at her hands, searching all over for a sign that her gloves or shirt had been torn or ripped. Everything looked pretty much good to go. She closed and opened her hands a few times, reassuring herself of that, eventually releasing a deep breath that she hadn't realized that she'd been holding in.

As she did, she looked over to Shiloh as if just now remembering him. The young boy looked almost embarrassed at the situation, with the nervous rubbing. Zoe tried a reassuring smile, reaching a gloved hand up to her own eyes. "I'm Zoe," she offered, moving the hand toward Shiloh for a moment before thinking better and jerking it back. "What? Oh, it's fine," she held up the camera. "Thanks for asking. I'm fine too," the way she added it, it was just a little offhand comment. She added a little shrug, and then turned to look at the building she'd been photographing.

"It's rather pretty, isn't it? The whole place has a certain charm about it," she said. Her fingers played at the camera as if debating bringing it up for another shot. 'I just arrived her a little while ago," she said, her eyes flicking to the boy. That seemed a little obvious, and she bit her lip, feeling like she'd just flubbed in mentioning it. Hopefully he wouldn't mind.

[Deleted]

Shiloh looked down at her hand but tilted his head a bit as Zoe jerked it back. Right, no touching. Well, at least she was okay now. That was good. "Nice to meet you..." The kid said, looking around then back to her. "Glad you and your camera are okay...mud can be tricky. Once I lost my shoe whenever I stepped in some. Well...I got it back but it was so filled with mud my mom threw the pair away." Shiloh said with a shrug.

"Pretty?" He asked, turning around looking at the school. "Y-yeah...it's pretty I guess. I mean, it's giant...my last school has nothing on this one. It was big...but this one...huuuuge." Shiloh looked back at Zoe. "Oh, I'm new too! I just got here a few hours ago, it's like a maze in there. It took me like two hours just to find my dorm..."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe nodded, trying to listen to Shiloh's story. He definitely seemed eager, if a little awkward. Not that Zoe could really blame him: this whole place would make anyone nervous, especially someone who had just discovered they were a mutant. For all Zoe knew, Shiloh's power was even worse than hers, though sometimes she wondered if that was even possible.

The school looked nice though, even Shiloh admitted as much. Zoe could tell that he didn't have quite her aesthetic eye, but she didn't hold that against him; most people didn't see the world the way she did. She thought briefly about explaining, even lifting an arm up, but then decided against it. It was unlikely that he'd understand the whole thing anyway. She could've told that he was new just by the way he acted, but she did appreciate the understanding. At his confession regarding the dorm, she had to laugh.

"The place is disorienting, isn't it? I keep feeling like it's going to swallow me up. and everyone here's a mutant..." Zoe trailed off, not wanting to think about the fact that they were now in an entire school where everyone had a power. She looked over at Shiloh again, frowning. "Did your ability just, uh, happen too? You seem a little young... oh," she raised her hands, blushing a little, "sorry, I guess I shouldn't... maybe you're older than you look? Maybe that's your ability?" it sounded like a lame ability, but who knew, really?

[Deleted]

"Yeah it is, I don't really know if I'm ever gunna learn how to get around the school. Geeze, they should totally put signs around pointing you in the direction of things! Like...cafeteria this way or auditorium that way!" The boy said with a laugh. "That would be suuuuper helpful." Wouldn't it though? But still, with Shiloh's sense of direction he'd probably still end up getting lost around this place. The boy was never really great with directions, hell, he still has to put his fingers up to see which makes an "L" just so he could tell his left from his right!

"Oh my gosh, I know right? It's so weird to think that every single person here has powers. What if someone could like...blow up the school or something!? Do you think they have students here with those type of powers? Seems awfully dangerous if the would let them stay here...but then again...I guess they have all the right to try and control their powers like we do." The kid said, rambling. "Oh, yeah, I just found out about it...I'm fifteen...so I guess you're right? Kinda young...but yeah. I found out about it when some jerks were messing with me. Threatening to beat me up or whatever...but then they couldn't see me! It was crazy! I thought I was just going crazy but I tried it again and yeah! It was real! I can turn invisible!" He said, grinning. "What can you do?"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe's eyes widened, and she shrank back slightly as Shiloh practically exploded with words. She was tempted to point out that there was a directory and that you could always follow people around, but Zoe wasn't able to even get a word in edgewise, not with the stream of language that kept pouring forth from Shiloh's mouth. Perhaps that was his power? The ability to speak at rapid pace and somehow make the words still more or less make sense?

The stream change course, moving directly from talk about the school and finding places directly into the talk of powers. Zoe tied to nod along, her lips fighting to turn upward into something like giggles. The mention of power did turn the smile slightly upside down though, as it reminded Zoe all too well of her own power. Not to mention the gloves that hid her hand from sight. Just thinking about it made her curl her hand inward, dropping it down.

Fifteen, so he was slightly older than Zoe thought, though that did seem horribly young to be suffering from this kind of power. Then again, she supposed that turning invisible wasn't nearly as bad as her power, which, of course, he had to ask about. she took a deep breath, barely speaking above a whisper: "I paralyze everyone I touch, sometimes sending their bodies into a state of shock." Which sucked. She fiddled with her camera a bit, looking over at the building and shuffling her feet.

[Deleted]

Had he been talking too much? Dang it. Rambling was one of his worst habits, whenever he got started he didn't know when to stop and people just started ignoring everything he said. The kid shoved his hands in his pocket, kicking at the dirt a bit. Why couldn't he just act like a normal person? He wasn't normal though...well maybe here he was...but still, he was different from the majority of people in the world. Even here though he felt different, maybe that would change over time? He sure hoped so.

When Zoe explained her power his eyes widened. "Woah..." That was a crazy power...good thing she hadn't touched him. Was that why she wore gloves? Obviously. "That could be a good thing though! What if you were getting attacked or something, like by pirates! You could just touch all of them and boom! You win! That's a really cool power if you ask me!"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

The shuffling feet and kicking did make Zoe want to hug or reassure Shiloh somehow. But she was all too aware that she couldn't touch him. She could only hope that he felt the comforting thought she tried to send his way. Though, for some reason, she couldn't help but bring her camera up and take a quick photo. Sometimes the best photographs were the ones people weren't expecting, and Zoe did enjoy capturing the dark side of life.

Speaking of dark sides: the mention of her power brought Zoe's mind right back around to it. She looked to Shiloh, blinked, and tried to force a smile. 'I guess. But it also means that I can't ever touch anyone. I can't ever feel what it's like to press my cheek against someone, or to feel their fingers on mine, well, without gloves. I can't even kis---let's just say it's not pleasant," she lowered her eyes, shuffling her feet a little, digging a bit in the dirt with her toe.

Say something, Zoe, she screamed at herself, you don't need to take him into your little dark hole unless he wants to. "Um, but I'm here now," she tried, it sounded weak, "and, uh, I'm sure that we'll get lots of training. I don't think we'll fight many pirates though.'

[Deleted]

'Did she just take a picture of me?' He asked himself, tilting his head a bit. No, why would she? There was no reason for that. "Just 'cuz you can't touch someone doesn't make it all that bad. I mean, I don't touch people anyway-" He shrugged. "-unless you really wanna touch someone, you don't exactly have a problem...right?" He asked. The last bit of what she said sounded like she said she couldn't kiss someone. Kiss someone? Sure, he'd seen people kiss before but...it was just weird. Another point of 'why would you even want to do that?'

"Oh yeah! I'm sure we'll get tons of training! Maybe one day I'll be able to be unseen for hours instead of mere minutes. That would be pretty fricken' cool..." He said, going back into his mind to think if all the things he could do if he was able to turn invisible for hours. "But...there could totally be pirates..." Montana...that's where he was now. Was that landlocked? Oh...maybe it was. Florida certainly wasn't! He dreamed of battling pirates ever since he was a child...and not surprisingly he was still dreaming of it. "...oh...maybe not. There could be evil cowboys though!"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

"You don't understand!" protested Zoe, nearly whining. She wanted to groan in frustration, but settled for rubbing at her arm. It wasn't like she could really make him understand. Shiloh's ability was almost pleasant; he wasn't disappearing at random or losing some portion of himself. He could just vanish at will. Who hadn't thought about having that very ability before? Contrast that with Zoe's inability to touch anyone she cared about without nearly killing them...

but he was young; he wouldn't understand. Zoe just sighed, forcing herself to let the issue go. The mention of training had worked to distract him anyway, and Zoe forced a smile as Shiloh's excitement grew. That was infectious, at the least. the bit about the pirates, then evil cowboys, nearly made Zoe laugh. "I believe they're called rustlers if they're evil," she said, sounding so very British for a few moments. The accent did come on strong from time to time; years of living in London having forever left their mark on Zoe's tone and accent. "But I would think that someone would want to, uh, pillage us at some point," Zoe frowned, realizing just how true that was. What if someone heard about some of their abilities? Someone who could paralyze with a touch? Someone who could enter another person's mind? It all sounded like something out of a nightmare, or, well, a comic book.

But again: Zoe didn't want to pollute this poor bright youngster's mind with her dark thoughts. "How would you use your invisibility to fight the rustlers, if they do come?" she asked, figuring she might as well encourage his fantasy. Maybe he would lighten her mood as he spoke. It was worth a shot.