Looking For Jasper

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

"Man he is so stupid." Casper said with frustration and anger in his voice. The usually mellow and calmer of the twins kept curling and uncurling his fist as he headed for the cafeteria. He and his brother had gotten into a fight, mean things were said, punches were thrown, and now Casper was off looking for his brother. They had always gotten into fights but this one had been a bit different, a bit more sensitive. Casper blamed Jasper for all of it, he was the one who brought up their mom and he knew very well that Casper didn't like talking about that women. The one that abandoned them and who they could not even recall what she looked like. There were other things that were said that had caused Casper to just lose it, but that was the main thing his mind was stuck on.

Now he was still feeling bad about it all. They both exchanged blows and why Casper was sporting a clearly bruised jaw, he was pretty sure he drew blood from his punch to his brother's face. He was still angry, still could feel the overflow of hormones in his system that had caused the fight to go further then he or his brother had ever really gone before. "Why am I even looking for him? I should just wait until he comes back to the room." Casper said as he took a deep breath to calm himself down a little more. He was hungry and figured his brother would be hungry as well so went to check to see if he was in the cafeteria. It soon became clear that his brother was not there as he could not even feel a tingle of his power.

He was basically some weak human at the moment, well not a weak human since he was from the circus but he could not use his power. Letting out a sigh as he headed over towards someone to ask for some help on at least finding out if his brother had been here and he just missed him. "Excuse me, but have you see someone that looks just like me in every way? We are even wearing out uniforms the same." Casper asked after he reached out to tap the person's shoulder.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe had only recently really started to get used to being in the cafeteria again. People didn't really stare at her if she didn't act like someone who expected everyone to stare, so she could simply move through the room more or less like a normal person. Between Liz, Mae, Sage, and a handful of other people, Zoe also didn't normally have to eat alone. This time, however, she'd come for a light snack, just wanting to grab a bottle of water and maybe a yogurt or some fruit.

She'd just pulled the yogurt out of the fridge when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Zoe let out a little yelp and nearly dropped the treat, fumbling it. Her gloveless hands had a little more traction then normal though, and she barely managed to hook it. Thus situated, she turned and looked up at the young man who'd asked the question.

"Um, what?" she said, blinking. "Did you say... someone who looks---but we all have the same uniform," though with some slight variations. This young man probably wasn't wearing the same skirt that swished around Zoe's knees, after all, though it wouldn't have surprised Zoe to find out that was true. She swallowed hard. "I, uh, haven't really seen him though? Or at least... I don't think... so?"

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

Casper slightly flinched at the little yelp that the girl he tapped on the shoulder had let out, wondering for a moment if he had tapped her shoulder to hard. Sure he could still do some damage with his body with his height and build compared to the girl. Yet, nothing that should have hurt her from a simple tap on the shoulder when he could not even use his power. He just watched as she struggled to keep a hold of her treat in her head and once she managed to keep a hold of it, she was looking up at him. Oh joy, you asked a jumpy girl where your brother is. No way will she know. Casper thought to himself but he still stuck around just to be sure because it didn't really hurt to ask. The brothers bothered all sorts of people so it was not impossible for his brother to have at least been seen by the girl.

Casper blinked for a moment as the girl seemed confused by his question; making him think back to if he had worded it weird at all. Nope. He was pretty sure he said it clear enough that someone would get that he was talking about someone that looked like him. What grade is she in? Casper thought to himself as she pointed out that they all had the same uniform. There was stuttering then, and informing Casper that she had not seen his brother. At least she didn't think so, which had been pretty clear by her questioning tone in her voice. "I meant looks like me in a physical sense but we are wearing the same thing. He is my twins and his name is Jasper. Heard of him?" Casper asked, figuring if he gave the girl a bit more it would help jog her memory of possibly seeing his brother.

How could you miss a six foot guy with black hair that looked just like Casper? Well, it was not that hard to believe because there were a lot of people at the school, that Casper could not expect a person to know of everyone at the school. Especially with a girl who was probably afraid of her own shadow with how she jumped. "We had a fight and now I can't find him." Casper added, changing his tone a little bit to sound sad. He could use this girl to help him find his brother if he acted and played his cards right.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

The same in... "Oh," managed Zoe, the noise soft, nearly inaudible. She flushed again, the read crawling up her pale skin. She supposed that did make sense, the twin thing. There did seem to be a few mutant twin pairings, what with the Bellefontes and all. "I, um, haven't, no," said Zoe, then she fidgeted, seeming to be aware that this probably wasn't the most polite or gentle thing to say.

Before Zoe could continue, the not-missing twin continued, explaining. "That's most unfortunate," said Zoe, smiling, "I mean, I'm really sorry to hear it. And I'm sorry I haven't, um, heard of you or your twin before. I, uh, don't really get out or socialize much..." Though she was getting a lot better at it, what with the influx of clothes and the new date and things of that nature. Zoe chewed her lip for a moment, looking over at the twin.

"Where do you think he'd go? If, um, he wanted to be away from you? Is there, like, some place he'd want to go?" she asked, figuring that she could at least help some. True, she'd just run into him or, well, he'd run into her or whatever but, well, Zoe couldn't very well leave him all alone: he looked sort of sad or something... or sounded sad... something like that.

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

The girl was getting red, man was she super shy. Casper could not help but to think of that one super shy boy he and his brother met when they were lost out in the woods. What was that boys name again? Sage Plant, that was what they called him so that was pretty much his name. Yes, this girl right here was like a female version of Sage Plant. He let out a sigh when the other girl said that she still had not seen his brother. Where could he have gone off to? Sure his search just started but he figured his brother would go to one of the three places he would go. A place where there was food, somewhere you could work out or back to the room.

He doubted that Jasper would head back to the room so soon after their fight, but he kept it in mind to check their room in a few hours. He shook his head no, but still kept the sad expression on his face as he looked around the cafeteria again. No sign of his brother and still no change in any feelings he got normally when his brother was around. "Its fine, I could already tell you were not really the social kind of girl." Casper pointed out as he gave her a weak smile for a moment. His mind going back to where his brother could be and if she really could be of any use. Perhaps she had a power that would help and if she was completely useless then he could just keep her around for the company.

"Well I thought of the cafeteria, the gym, or our room. He is not in the room or here so my only other guess would be the gym." Casper answered as he took a deep breath and stretched a little. "Mind helping me look? You could take your snack with you and they say two sets of eyes are better than one." Casper asked her for some help and then was actually sad for a moment. He was used to always having two sets of eyes with him at all times.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

The suggestions seemed to hold wait, if that really was consideration on the young man's face. Zoe watched, fidgeting, hoping that he could figure something out. He immediately forgave her, which made her relax quite a bit. No, she wasn't social... not any more. She used to be, was trying to be again, wasn't she? Sometimes even Zoe got confused on that, as if it all belonged to someone else.

The cafeteria, the gym, and the room. "Sounds sound," replied Zoe, adding a short little giggle as she realized what precisely she'd said. She took a deep breath, nodding. "Yes, I can, um, help," she agreed, readjusting her grip on the yogurt. "I should, um, go pay for this though, if that's alright. If you'd rather leave, that's alright too. I don't, um, I don't mind."

Zoe flushed, pointing toward the cashier. She took a step toward it, hesitated, and turned to look at the boy, clearly asking permission to go ahead and head toward it.

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

She seems like she is easy to please, bet she is the type that is made really happy by praise. Casper thought to himself and then blinked a few times. He knew that he had always been the one to do a lot of the thinking between the two, but now he felt like he was doing it a lot more. His level of thinking was even mean in a way and it was odd to already be judging the girl so early on. Sure he and his brother always judge people in their head, but Jasper tended to say what he was thinking out loud. Perhaps it was his brother saying it out loud that made Casper feel like he was the kinder of the two since he kept it in. Yet now that his brother was not around and he just had his thoughts and no words that sounded like his, he felt mean.

He did chuckle slightly at the girl repeating the same word; he figured it was something people from the UK did. He knew that she was from the UK or at least British because of her accent, having heard it before in his time in the circus. He smiled a little more when she agreed to help him out, pleased that he was not going to have to do this all on his own. He was still unsure how much help Zoe was going to be since she was not voicing any talents about what she could do. So he doubted she had a power that would help him find his brother, but it was still worth a shock getting someone to help him out. Plus she was a pretty girl and what guy didn't want to be around a pretty girl? "Thank you." Casper said with a smile still.

He gave a nod when she said she was going to pay or her little treat at least. He expected her to go off and do that, but instead she was looking up at him as if wanting approval. He knew he was a pretty tall guy to be sixteen years old, but he didn't expect people to look to him for approval on something. "Do you wanting me to hold your hand or pay for it?" Casper asked, confused on what she was wanting by hesitating and looking to him. He offered his hand out to her regardless, fine if she wanted him to walk her there. Casper even figured it would not be that big of a deal if he brought her treat for her, it be his way of paying her back in advance for the help he supposed.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

So he didn't mind help, or he wanted help or, something. Zoe wasn't sure, and she wasn't really sure how she should go about checking it or anything. She fidgeted again for a moment, looking at him then back at the yogurt for a moment. Just when she took a deep breath to try and say something, he spoke instead, his words actually catching her off guard.

"Hold my... no, you, um, wouldn't like that," she said, running her hand over her skirt. No, one little brush and he'd get numb fingers, which wouldn't work out well for anyone. Zoe took another nod and then turned, hesitating only one last moment before heading to the cashier. She used her ID card, which happened to be quite full of more then enough "food points" to get her through her entire duration of schooling here (another nice side benefit of being on the whole internet show).

Yogurt and spoon in hand, Zoe walked back to the young man. 'Um, are you, uh, sure you should be, um, waiting for me?" she asked, looking up at him and blinking again. "I mean, shouldn't you be more concerned about finding your brother in a hurry or something? Not that I mind, but..." she trailed off, chewing her lip for a moment, her nervous fingers playing with the lid of the yogurt container.

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

Casper gave the girl a confused look when she said that he would not like holding her hand. His eyes looked down to her hands for a moment that were brushing over her skirt. The temptation to flip her skirt crossed his mind for a moment but he focused on the hand comment. "Why not? You are a very pretty girl; it would be nice to hold your hand." Casper pointed out, tossing in a compliment in there as he smiled at Zoe a little. He was not outright flirting with her, not yet anyways. That was something he tended to leave to his brother and would chime in here and there. He still didn't even see holding hands as that big of a deal.

He held his brother's hand from time to time and tons of people held the hands of their friends so it was not like he was asking for her to be his girl or anything like that. The girl was hesitating again before she did in fact start to move to go pay for her little snack that Casper was still willing to pay for. He was not going to press the issue because it saved him money in the end and went to slightly follow her but stopped. She was not going too far and it was also a way to test that she was really willing to help him. If not then she could have easily just paid for her treat and then ran out of there. Yet, the girl came back which had Casper honestly smiling just a little bit as he looked at her.

He shook his head no when the girl asked him a question about waiting for her compared to looking for his brother. He honestly felt that there was no need to rush to find his brother and he didn't even need to go out to look for him. Casper was confident that if he just waited back in the room then his brother would come back eventually. "Knowing my brother when he picks a place to hide he tends to stay there, so there is not any rush. Plus the longer it takes to find him the more likely I'll just end up finding him back in our room." Casper explained and gave a nod at the end of his words to show that he was fully sure.

"I don't think I caught your name. I'm Casper." Casper said as he offered out his hand to shake her, to be polite of course. He hesitated slightly because of the whole 'don't want to hold my hand' thing she said, but honestly he wanted to try it out anyways. That daredevil side of the boy creeping to the surface.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe had flushed at the compliment, even though part of her knew that she really should be better at accepting them by now. Several people had been calling her pretty, and the part of Zoe that was an artist who recognized aesthetics had to admit that her features did look fairly striking. she just wished that she wasn't so skinny, or that maybe her hair would do what she wanted or that she could find an outfit that didn't make her look like a matron of some kind.

So she might have been even more nervous after getting the yogurt then she'd initially figured. She sort of played with it a bit, almost as if afraid to eat it in front of the boy. He did seem friendly enough, even when Zoe came back. He offered an explanation for why he hung out and everything, an explanation that made Zoe smile slightly. He and his brother seemed quite silly, really, and Zoe could certainly use some more silly in her life.

"Oh, I, uh, don't believe I gave it. I'm Zoe," she said, nodding slightly. She looked at the hand and bit her lip a bit, before pointing. "I, um, wasn't kidding about the not wanting to touch me thing. My power, I, well, I paralyze people whenever I touch them. It's not exactly... pleasant," Zoe flushed again, opening up her yogurt, hoping to distract herself with her snack and prevent herself from saying anything too foolish.

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

Aww look at her flushing. Wonder if she is easy? Casper thought to himself before he shook his head a little. He should not be thinking about that when it came to a girl. Again he was feeling more of a jerk when his brother was not around to say the jerkish things. At least he was keeping the thoughts on the inside and this girl didn't seem to be a mind reader. He could take that as a positive out of all of this. It was just still weird to see how he was without his brother around and scary at the same time that only an hour apart was doing this to him.

Some more fear rose up him in wondering how his power was going to react when he did get back closer to being to his brother. Yet, he waited for her either way to go get her yogurt, standing around and debating if he should even risk staying around her when he was already feeling so off. He didn't want to hurt the frails girl’s feelings, but at the same time he did because he wanted to test out how frail she was. "Nice to meet you, Zoe. Pretty cute name you got there." Casper said as he looked her over again. She was very cute, cute name, and if you were into the shy types then she certainly fit the bill.

He wondered if she was dating anyone and the kind of person that she would end up dating. It would have to be someone who was probably a little more on the dominate side then her. Unless she had a super kinky side that was just hidden away so well. When she didn't take his hand he felt some anger feel him. Was she worried that he had boy germs or something? She explained that it was because of her power but he didn't really feel like that was good enough. She clearly didn't kill anyone upon touch right away or else he didn't think the school would let her walk around so freely.

"I don't care. Try it out on me anyways. It could be fun." Casper said as he held out his hand. He almost felt like she was challenging him by saying that her power was not pleasant. Why could he not be the one who decided that?

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

People really did seem to think that her name was cute, didn't they? Zoe thought that her full name bordered more on pretentious than adorable, but she didn't see any reason to split hairs with someone like this, especially not on a first meeting. Instead she just flushed all the darker, flushed and squirmed again.

He kept pressing, as she should have expected. Zoe took a deep breath, trying to think of what the various people in her support network would say. Probably that she should at least go ahead and shake his hand. What was the worst that could happen? With a hand, his hand would go numb and he'd wind up releasing her before anything too horrible could happen.

"If you... well, I did..." then Zoe sighed, sighed and extended her bared hand. It still felt odd, sliding her flesh against someone else's, even for something like this. But she took Casper's hand in hers, holding it loosely, knowing that her paralyzing touch had already started to spread throughout his fingers and arm. "There, handshake. We're... I'm... it's nice to meet you..." she flushed, biting her lip, but kept the hand extended and connected all the same. Progress: it was progress.

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

The Zoe girl was getting really red, making Casper's a bit more naughty side rise the surface a little bit. He wondered how easy she would be to hook up with and if she would be game for some fun with twins. Perhaps he could use her as an apology gift to his brother for the fun they could have with her. Yet, this talk about her power was something to worry about a little bit since he didn't know what she could do.

Her touch could like freeze them or do something just not pleasant but he was still interested to find out what she could do. Powers interested him on some level, in terms of just figuring out all the different kinds out there. He liked to know how he could use them to the benefit for him and his sibling and in order to do that he had to at least understand the basics of someone’s power. Zoe seemed like she was going to put up some more resistance. Casper was held tempted to reach his hand out to take her hand by force but thankfully she extended her hand to him.

As soon as she touched his hand he felt an odd tingly feeling spread across it, but nothing hurt or anything. When the feeling started to crawl up his arm, he still didn't really freak out. All her power was doing was spreading numbness which he guesses could be bad. "Nice to meet you. That was not that bad, I guess it keeps spreading and gets worse but you should not be so worried about just doing a simple handshake." Casper said as he looked at his hand, not seeing it changing colors or anything like that.

His hand looked fine and now that he was not touching her he could feel the numb feeling starting to go away. "Ready to help me look for my brother now?" Casper asked, not wanting to rush her but at the same time he did. He at least wanted to check the gym now and see if his brother was there.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

It still felt incredibly strange to touch someone else's skin. Though Zoe had been doing it for a while now, ever since she'd started seeing Alice semi-regularly. Still, this was a near stranger, albeit quite a nice one on the whole. She could almost feel her power working though, surely spreading the tingling sensation all throughout his body.

"I'm still, um, getting used to it," said Zoe. She meant the handshake and her power in general, though she supposed that latter would be nearly unbelievable. Most people did not get their powers as late in their lives as Zoe did. Just one more way in which she'd been cursed with this stupid ability of hers.

"Right," she said as Casper continued. She nodded and released the hand, working her fingers. "You said you were fairly certain where he would be, yes?" she moved to tap her yogurt again, even pausing to lick her lips. "So perhaps we should, um, start there?" it made sense to her, anyway. though just mentioning it made her flush again, wondering if she wasn't being too forward.

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

Casper really didn't mind the feeling that had quickly spread across his body, if anything it was slightly helpful to him. He had to deal with a lot of physical pain on his body due to his power, so that moment of not really feeling much was as if he took some super-fast acting pill that took the pain away. Yet, when hands were released, the numbness went away and with it the pain returned right after it. The pain was not something that was unbearable to deal with and in fact with how it was just the basic level of pain, he was fine. If he used his power a bit more through the day it would get worse, but at the moment since he could not even use his power, he was just dealing with more so of the side effects.

"Your power or touching people?" Casper asked, since she was not really super clear. He figured it could be both of them, but the whole not really touching people was hard to believe. People practically needed physical touch, so he could not really imagine anyone not having it growing up or anything like that. Even he knew he craved physical touch, but he normally got plenty of it thanks to having a twin brother who was always around and liked to lean on him. Zoe was much smaller than him, so he was not even sure how old she was, but she looked young.

He did wonder if he was older then her or if she was one of those just really short but older girls. Then again, most girls were just shorter then he and his brother. "Yeah, he normally would be in here or the gym. Since he is not here, I figure we could check out them gym then. It should not be hard to find him with him looking just like me." Casper said as he turned and started to leave. Leading the way to the gym that he pretty much had multiple routes memorized how to get to that area of the school.

He did walk so; checking back to make sure that Zoe was still following him and keeping up. "Mind telling me about yourself? So we are not walking in awkward silence." Casper asked, and stated why. He was not used to walking around in silence due to having a talkative brother like Jasper.