What's the Dumb Tree For?

[Demi Smith]

Yes, Demi's favorite word did happen to be stupid, and she hated it when people turned it on her, especially if they actually made some sense when doing so. She looked at him, then let out a snort of derision anyway: "It's not my fault you all have stupid beliefs! You're all supposed to be Inherited just like me, ordained to rule over the stupid normal people," she sighed, shrugging. He'd said she could believe what she wanted, but she just wished they got that they were wrong and just started believing the right thing.

She'd already raised a hand, moving ornaments on the little clouds of dust. She paused at Franck's comment, letting out a laugh that nearly burst out of her. "Oh, right, I forgot, you got the sucky feeling people's feelings thing," Demi let out another giggle-snort. "That's gotta suck. Like, some of the abilities we Inherit are just stupid, aren't they?" Demi let out another giggle snort but flung her hand just so. She took a breath and smoothly entered Flow, her motions going almost dance-like as she gestured. She waved in the air, moved, and actually placed a handful of ornaments around the top of a tree, nearly in a perfect ring.

"Ha!" she said, stomping her foot and sending up yet more dust. She pointed, "see that? That's how it's done," she nodded and clapped her arms together, sending more dust into the air. "Bet I can do, like, more next time."

[François Laffont]

Franck sighed too but for an entirely different reason. There didn’t seem any way to make her see the flaw in her belief. Then again, he knew his religion was flawed and that, according to it, he was damned. Yet he refused to let anyone mock the catholic faith in front of him. He supposed he should relate to her but it was so hard. The girl was doing nothing to make herself likeable. Anyway, she knew where he stood on the subject, there really was no reason to start this debate yet again.

Franck thought he needed a new angle if he wanted to get to her and he thought she just gave it to him. “I guess so,” he agreed with her even though he didn’t believe it. “But on the long run, it could be useful too. I mean, sure, I can’t beat anyone in a strength contest. But by knowing exactly how people feel, I can make myself irreplaceable to the strongest of the group. Try to hurt me then.” Franck was actually amazed by how brilliantly sly this sounded. Should the occasion arise, it wasn’t likely that Franck would do something like that. He might befriend the strongest person and most likely to be the last man standing but that would be a coincidence and nothing more.

He watched as Demi used her power to put some ornaments at the top of the tree. He had to admit it, it was pretty impressive. This was maybe not an exploit you would brag about to demonstrate how talented you were but it remained impressive. “I actually didn’t think you’d do it,” he admitted. “It was pretty nice. We got some more left,” he told her, gesturing at the box. He might not be able to do it but he was taller and by standing on the tip of his toes he was able to reach pretty much as high as she managed with her power so he figured he had an advantage too. One he was not all that afraid to show her by putting one as high as he could.

[Demi Smith]

As Franck spoke, Demi got ready to tell him how stupid he was and how his power was just perfectly useless and stupid and then he had to go and ruin it by outlining something that actually sounded pretty useful. She studied him for a few seconds, her brain going through various group dynamics and jogging loose some of the strategy lessons she'd actually bothered paying attention to back when she'd been among her people (and by extension, cared about stuff like lessons). Still, in the end, she simply said "still stupid," though with a good deal less fervor than she had moments before.

Then it was back to the tree and putting on ornaments and "Oh c'mon!" she said, gesturing as Franck reached for the ornaments. "It's not my fault that you're all stupidly tall and stuff! I'm probably still gonna grow or something, at least taller," though Demi wasn't quite as sure about that as she had been a year or so ago. She'd crawled upward, and even most of her fellow fourteen year olds had passed her up a while ago. She had this sinking feeling she'd always bet the short one.

Mumbling, she went to work gathering up more ornaments. Her anger and frustration at her lack of height ate at her control though, making the ornaments wobbling this time. Demi sort of noticed, but she told herself she didn't care. Instead she thrust her hand outward, as if to punch. And she sent a small burst of dirt out, rattling the tree... and effectively blasting the three ornaments she'd carried, causing one to break.

Demi held still then, hand still outstretched, looking at it, then at Franck. "I..." she said, her eyes widening for a moment, "I..." she looked down again, trying to figure out what to say. She hadn't actually meant to do that, not this time...

[François Laffont]

Franck chose to shrug off her comment. There was nothing to do for her to stop thinking he was stupid. They were too different. He could never share her mentality. He refused to go against humans, even if they were going against mutants. He was a pacifist at heart and she clearly was not. He supposed the world needed people who were more suited for battle but it was not his case. He preferred to talk his way out of a problem than to fight. He doubted Demi ever bothered doing that, or let a conversation win her over. It made him feel sorry. She was so young and so aggressive at the same time.

He tried not to laugh too much or even show he was amused that she was so small. “Of course you will, you’re still young,” he admitted when she pointed out she would grow taller eventually. “But I wouldn’t count on having a career as a basketball player,” he added. Demi was pretty small. He had no idea how old she was exactly but he could tell that she was short. Franck wasn’t. He could get she was angry however and although it was slowly making him frustrated as well, he had a better control than she had over his emotions.

He startled as he heard a crashing noise. He turned to face her and noticed the ornament that broke. “Did you hurt yourself?” he asked as he came to look at the broken pieces. She was in shock making him wonder if she meant to do that or not. “It’s ok, there are many others, I doubt they will really miss one. Just try not to cut yourself,” he told her to reassure her as he gathered the pieces.

[Demi Smith]

Demi just snorted about the height comment. She'd just keep being as awesome as she was now, and that would handle things just fine. It didn't matter how tall you actually were, it mattered how tall you projected yourself to be, and Demi stomped about like a half-giant.

Which might explain part of why she busted some ornaments. She whirled on Franck at his question, feeling her customary defensive indignation rising: "Uh, do I look hurt to you?" she replied. "I'm fine. The stupid ornament broke," she gestured to it, then frowned. It had technically been her fault, but now he was trying to be nice about it.

Demi stomped a foot, sending out more dust. "What is with you? Last time you were all like 'you're gonna be locked up for being evil' and now you're all 'oh, it's okay, are you hurt? want a band-aid?" she snorted, folding her arms over her chest and glaring at him. "You're just--- argh," another foot stomp and a muttered: "stupid school" under her breath yet again.

[François Laffont]

He froze as she used her usual, kind of pissed off tone at him as he asked if she hurt herself. You’d think, if she had to be upset over something he said, it wouldn’t be about that. “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t cut yourself,” he said to justify his question. If his tone pointed out how stupid it was for her to snap at him like this, well, she asked for it. Funny, that he thought about something being stupid. She was obviously rubbing off on him right now.

But Demi was not done making a scene and going after him. Not physically, not yet, but she was attacking him verbally and even if he bet she would disagree with him, he thought words hurt more. “Will you stop being a brat for a second!” he snapped back at her. He stared hard at her for a moment, taking deep breaths. He knew this anger did not come from him. Last time, he let her emotions take a hold of him and said cruel things to her. He didn’t want to do it again, so he made sure to calm down, looking down at the ornament as he picked the last pieces of it.

He even took the time to stand up before looking at her again. “I know what I said last time and I’m not proud of it,” he said, forcing his tone to remain calm. He was slowly getting a grip on himself and he let out a heavy sigh, as if the sigh itself chased away the negativity she might have put on him. “But you’ve got to keep your aggressiveness in check. This here was just an accident but you can’t start attacking people and expect they don’t retaliate.” He stared at her for a moment, the broken ornament in his hand, not making a move, just waiting to see if his words might be able to sink into her head. “I got my share of negativity but I never meant someone as destructive as you are. It’s hard to keep control,” he let out though he wasn’t really talking to her as much as thinking it out loud. Maybe he did enough with her. If he stayed around, who knows what might happen.

[Demi Smith]

Demi clicked her tongue at the mention of cutting herself. Like she'd really cut herself on something as dumb as a Christmas bauble. Gah, this guy just annoyed her more with each passing moment. And... and now he was yelling at her. Brat? Seriously? Demi felt her anger rising, and she could feel more and more of her dust just sort of falling off her as it did.

He kept going, seeming to force calm, insisting that she keep her aggression in check. Demi seethed at him, her eyes narrowing. "That's easy for you to say!" she snapped, waving a hand, cutting through the air. "You didn't get ripped from your family! You didn't get to listen as they told you that you were going to be shipped off to a stupid, dumb school for years where nobody was going to think like you. You didn't get told that no one, no one was going to come and see you. Not your mother, not your honer, not your siblings, not your teammates. No one!

"And you people just keep yelling at me!" she was practically screaming now and she didn't care, "and it's just too hard and---and I'm so done with it!" she stomped her foot, sending more dirt flying up. A hand went up to wipe at her eyes, feeling mud starting to form, the dirt mixing and now smearing across her face. "I didn't want to do anything with this stupid holiday anyway," she added, before turning to go, figuring that Franck probably didn't want her wrecking stuff or being all destructive.

[François Laffont]

Once again, Demi’s anger was too strong for Franck to fully keep it under control inside of him. She was naturally fighting off everyone and this was not good for Franck. He wished he could show her she could have fun here, that not everyone would dislike her or be against her and what did he do? He yelled at her. Anyone else would likely say it was all her fault but Franck couldn’t do that. He had to take all of the blame for his actions.

Easy for him to say? Not really. He was making efforts to keep calm. Her waving sent dust around and he turned his head even though she was not likely to reach him, just so he wouldn’t get any in his eyes. He stared at her thought when she pointed out he was not ripped from his family. Not ripped from his family!? “You think you’re the only one who didn’t want to be here? My mother nearly killed me when I got this,” he said, pointing at his chest because it was sort of hard to find something to point that would define empathy. “Imagine what she would have done if I had a power like yours?” Franck was angry now, and he let it out by yelling back at her, his French accent showing more than usual as he couldn’t keep it in check as usual. “I was happy, in France, miles from here, and I was forced to come to this place and learn a new language because no one here understood me. And guess what? We’re all in this situation!” That last sentence was almost screamed, as if saying it louder would make it easier for Demi to get it. He even extended his arms to include the whole school.

Franck sighed heavily. This little outburst drained him off the anger he felt. He never needed much for anger to go away, though he knew he would feel bad for screaming at her later on. Seeing that she was almost crying, and that she finally let her rage leave place to what was hidden underneath, he started to feel bad. He looked down. “I think you should go to a restroom, wipe that mud from your face. I don’t have any tissues on me,” he said, his tone soft once more. He did it again.

[Demi Smith]

Demi nearly growled as Franck launched back at her. Boo hoo, his mother wanted to kill him. "YOU'RE MOTHER'S STUPID THEN!" she nearly shouted, waving at him. "Because obviously you're better now!' She didn't understand the bit about France, seeming to vaguely remember Andrew saying something about countries and stuff. Maybe that was why Franck sounded so weird and pronounced things in a weird way. Didn't they have schools for that sort of thing in France though? Mutants were everywhere and all.

Demi was tempted to say that, even though her own anger gripped her tight, insisting on dominating instead of the fear and loneliness that threatened to raise up and overwhelm her. Demi was tempted to say a lot of things. Like how Franck didn't have people telling him he was thinking wrong all the time or how he had friends or how people didn't say that he couldn't do what he liked to do or that he was doing something wrong or any of a bevy of things that weighed on Demi on a daily basis. Instead, she let out a laugh as he said that.

"I'm a terrakinetic," she said. Demi raised a hand, wiping at her face while still keeping the palm a bit off. The mud sloughed off, showing an almost too white face underneath, white except for around the eyes, which had puffed. "That's my power, stupid," though the last word didn't seem to have much venom, and she directed the mud back down to her body, figuring that he'd probably say something stupid if she put it on the floor. She gave him another look. "So you get angry when I do, huh?" she snorted. "That's so lame."

[François Laffont]

If Franck could quickly pick up people’s emotions, they normally didn’t stick once he acted on them. Happiness stayed because it was more in his nature, depression could take a little while depending on the situation. Anger, however, was over pretty quickly. He was not the kind to stay mad for very long, let alone scream in someone else’s face. So when Demi insulted his mother, he found nothing to say and instead stood there in sort of a shock. A part of him wanted to warn her not to insult his mother, she was his mother after all, but another part also wanted to agree with her. Even though he could never totally hate the woman, there was still some of that feeling.

“So?” he let out, deciding to reply on the ‘better now’ part of her comment instead. “You think that makes it easier, to say that if the one person who should love you unconditionally hates you then you should be thrown in a different country that speaks a different language and deal with people and strange powers and pretend it’s normal?” He stopped there for a moment, realising that it was one really long sentence making the question it was intended to be perhaps confusing for the girl. Oh well. Franck wouldn’t be surprised she could disagree with him even though she didn’t get it all. The only thing they seemed to agree on is that they are really not thinking the same way. “Many of us didn’t choose to be here and some were pretty angry too. You don’t see us picking up fights all the time and mock those who want to try and help.” Again, Franck had the feeling he might as well talk to a wall.

“That’s no excuse to look like you just had a mud bath,” he pointed out. His tone was already going back to normal at that time. As said before, anger never stayed too long inside of him, especially if he blew up like he did. Compared to her, it had probably not been much but considering Franck was always kind and polite, people might be surprised he picked up a verbal fight with a young girl. As she cleaned up some of the mud, he could see her puffy eyes and guilt came over again at all he made her go through. He shrugged as she called his power lame. He was starting to get used to it. “I normally have a better control over emotions but you don’t really control yours either. You can’t do anything without putting all your strength in it.” He said it like that on purpose, as he wished she could almost take it as a compliment. It would not make up for all he said but it was still something.

[Demi Smith]

Easier to have one person hate you as opposed to everyone you'd ever known and loved abandoning you? Uh, yeah, that wasn't even a contest, and Demi was tempted to say as much, though railing against Franck wasn't proving to be nearly as much fun as it really should be. There was also that bit about how so many people weren't here because they didn't want to be.

"Well, the rest of you don't get everyone telling you that everything you know is right is wrong and that you can't do anything the way you're supposed to," she snapped back, flushing slightly with the anger. How many times had she said that? Demi had lost count, and she was pretty sure that she'd said as much to this idiot before too.

But nope, he still kept going. Demi snorted and rolled her arm, collecting the dust. She held it for a moment, and literally all the dirt, dust, and mud on her body started sliding, forming something of a ball in the air. Demi kept looking, hearing about the whole bit with emotions and whatever. The guy should definitely have better control if he was older.

"See?" she said, gesturing with a hand down at her incredibly pale body. "I'm fine underneath. I need the dirt and stuff so I have stuff to move. Plus, it's the only thing that feels right in this stupid place," Demi brought the arm back, slapping it against her, causing the dirt and dust to explode in a cloud around her. She took a few steps back, her arms waving, weaving, pulling the cloud back onto her skin. She ended with giving Franck a fierce look, defiant as ever.

[François Laffont]

He was sorry for her if she thought everyone was against her but she was not doing a good job at fitting in. He wasn’t telling her to ignore who she used to be and become someone else entirely, but she couldn’t go after everyone with violence and judgement and expect them not to do the same. He felt her pain. Even if he was not an empath, he would have felt it, related to it. It was hard to be taken away from everything you knew and asked to change your beliefs. He wanted to respect hers but the mentality was too different of his for him to agree with it.

“We have rules here and they are in place to protect everyone. The school has a view on the world and wants us to respect it. It might not always be easy but we all have to.” Franck thought if he showed her she was not the only one struggling to fit in around here, maybe it would be easier for her to get she didn't have to fight so much. “Did you even gave any of us a chance? You blame the school to want you to think all you thought was right is actually wrong but you’re doing the same to us. You say everything we believe in is stupid. That sort of things work both ways, you can’t expect them to be kind to you if you don’t in return.” Why did he keep doing this, a hamster was more likely to understand what he was saying.

When she made that ball in the air from the dirt on her body, he’ll admit it, he was a little afraid she might hit him with it. He made a step backward. She didn't seem as angry as earlier but that didn’t mean she might not want to strike him with that dirt. “Alright,” he decided to agree with her when she explained why she needed this dirt on her. “If you need it, I won’t ask you to clean it up. I just didn’t like to see the traces of your tears on your face,” he admitted. She was free to argue she didn’t cry but they both knew better. He tried to give her a sympathetic smile but he wasn’t sure how she would react to it. “Look, I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m sorry for that.”

[Demi Smith]

Demi snorted as Franck gave her the speech about rules. As if she hadn't heard that speech in dozens of different ways. You had to conform, you had to be just like everyone else. Do this. Believe that. All a bunch of stupid stuff, and Demi only did the barest minimum to stop herself from ending up strapped to a table or thrown in a cell or something. She'd been watched by enough staff members, thank you.

As for his other bit, Demi just rolled it off, actually rolling her shoulder. They weren't going to listen, so what was the point in being nice to them? "Whatever, you people are all stupid," she insisted again, adding a little "tching" sound. "That's the difference: I'm right."

She paused again, moving the dirt and dust, taking comfort in feeling it slide into comfortable patterns and positions along her skin. She definitely needed it. And she gave him a harsh look as he talked about traces of tears. Yeah, that definitely wasn't going to happen again. Ugh, that smile was worse.

"Well, I wasn't trying to break anything," she replied, folding her arms and looking back at the tree. "It's not my fault that everything around here is all new and different." She took another step toward the tree, eying it. "What's the point in going through all the effort of putting stuff on it? You're going to take it down, right?" she looked back at him, snorting. "And you all call me stupid."

Demi ended by bending down and picking up an ornament, working it between her fingers.

[François Laffont]

This was going nowhere. He had that conversation with her once and it led to the same disastrous outcome they were aiming for right now. Franck needed to divert the conversation. “It’s all a matter of opinion. There isn’t only one right way to live and those who think there is are the true stupid ones,” he claimed. Maybe he called her stupid there. He most certainly did, but she was free to think he was not, since he also offered her a way of not being stupid. He doubted she’d take it though.

“You’re pretty tough. I don’t think it’s a bad thing you show some vulnerability but I suppose you consider it weakness, right? So you might want to make sure there are no trace of it and we’ll pretend it never happened.” It wasn’t like Franck would describe in detail his encounter with Demi to anyone so she could rest assured no one would know, at least not from him. There was also the fact he didn’t really care how well she settled around here. He was sorry she was not making many friends but she was responsible for it and as long as she was not hurting those he loved, he didn’t really care about her. He might think about this encounter and feel bad about it tonight but he will forget about it later on.

“I didn’t say you were,” he pointed out when she defended herself. “I get it was an accident.” He had a little amused smile when she pointed out something he thought was valid. There was a lot of efforts put in order for these trees to look the way they did and yet they would put all those ornaments back in boxes after the holidays. He approached the tree too but kept a distance between them. “Normally, it’s a thing you do in family. It’s to give... I’m sorry I’m not sure I know exactly how to say it in English... to get a festive atmosphere, I suppose? Usually you put gifts underneath and you open them for Christmas. But you’re right, it’s kind of sad you have to put it all down after the holidays. But I wouldn’t want some generic or ugly decorations just because I don’t want to make an effort. I’m sure you can understand the importance of making an effort.”

[Demi Smith]

"Yeah, yeah, I get that a lot," Demi replied, obviously dismissing what Franck had to say. Everyone who didn't see things her way was stupid: she didn't get why Franck didn't understand that. It was pretty obvious, especially because her way was, well, right, and put them where they belonged.

Of course Franck had to go somewhere with his prattling. Demi nearly snorted as he talked about showing vulnerability. The last bit sounded like some trick to get Demi to clean up but, well, she didn't see any reason not to. It would look weird to have dirt and shattered bits around the tree. So Demi started moving her own arms, guiding the dirt to carry the bits and pieces, sweeping them up. She could hear him keep going, talking about how it was an accident and all. Demi's brow just narrowed further at those words, sure he was talking down to her again.

"Well, I'm not allowed to see my family," Demi replied, giving him another look of barely suppressed anger. "Because they're all nasty cultists," she practically spat the word. Her control over the dust wavered for a moment, and the sound of dirt flying drew Demi's attention back. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly and working. She began carrying the stuff over to the trash can.

"The teevee says that Christmas is supposed to be about love and giving people stuff," she said as she came close, looking back over at Franck. "I guess family too..." she hesitated, dropping her hands and the stuff. "That doesn't sound too bad..."