looking at the building

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"Rustlers, right." The boy said with a quick nod. "Well they won't be pillaging anything here! We've got a whole school of people with powers! We'd put up a pretty good fight I bet!" Shiloh said with a quick laugh. He was sure that they could put up a good fight, these were just cowboys...er...rustlers. They didn't have any powers!

"Oh, me?" The boy thought for a moment, crossing his arms and tilting his head. "Well, if they couldn't see me I could totally just take their guns without them knowing! What's a cowboy without their gun?" The boy gave her a grin. "Then someone with a stronger power could go in and beat them up or something!" Yeah, that's how he would be useful against the rustlers! Maybe then Zoe could go in and paralyze them...and boom! They had deafened the evildoers!

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

It was hard to imagine a group of normal individuals actually attacking this school. Zoe had a feeling that if they did so, it wouldn't be subtle; it wouldn't just be a handful of people with guns or firearms or what have you. She was picturing crowds of people with gas... humanity always resorted to gas when it wanted to kill massive groups of people without having them resist that much. It made the British girl swallow, and she just knew that the smile she put on had to look all the more strained and forced for it.

"Ah, so teamwork is the answer then," said Zoe, nodding. It did sound like a good plan though; handling one or two mutants with highly aggressive abilities would be enough as it was, let alone having several of them. "I suppose that any rustlers would have to be rather foolish to come here," she looked around. It did have a feeling of safety to it, though Zoe couldn't quite shake the feeling that feeling safe with their... gifts was a bad idea. "They certainly wouldn't see you coming," she tried, smiling a little at the bad joke.

Zoe fidgeted again, looking at the imposing buildings once more. They just kept calling to her, for some reason. Maybe she should ask Shiloh if he'd pose in front of them...?

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"Teamwork...right." He said with a nod. "I'm not really...uh...good with that. People really wouldn't want me on any sort of team anyway." The kid said with a nervous smile. "I'm not one of those brave people...I'm just...uh...Shiloh." He shrugged. When Zoe made the joke the boy couldn't help but grin, that was pretty funny.

The boy looked back at the building again. "Do you just take pictures of buildings? Or like...everything?" He'd never been all that great with photograpy, seemingly every picture he took came out blurry for some reason.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

"Well, you seem quite brave to me, volunteering to disarm all those rustlers," offered Zoe, giving Shiloh a smile. She was almost surprised to see him lapsing into a melancholy not unlike her own. Had he too realized the darkness that lay in the world out there and caught a glimpse of the neverending void that yawns before them, waiting to devour their essences and leave them awash in darkness? Zoe supposed it was best to discover that younger rather than later, though, now that she thought about it, she'd been pretty heavily invested in the darkness for a while now.

The building called to her though, so much so that she nearly forgot about Shiloh till he spoke again. She looked to him, momentarily startled. "What? Oh, um, I do photograph buildings a fair bit," she blushed a little at that. People always thought that was strange. "I photograph everything though. It's all part of life, really. I, uh, took a few pictures of you," she looked down for a moment, considering her camera. she really should have asked, but, well, it had just been perfect. She shuffled her feet, then looked back at the building.

"I could take some pictures of you in front of the building, if you'd like," she offered, nodding, "or, just, in general, besides the ones I've already taken, of course..."

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"Aw thanks." Shiloh said, a small blush crossing his face as he kicked at the ground. "You're lucky, I'm not that great at anything. I'm like...okay at some stuff...but there's nothing that I'm truly great at." He shrugged. That was okay though, he was allowed to be average. Average people were the ones who took care of all the...boring work in life. Yay, how fun. "Wait...you took pictures of me? ...why? I'm not someone you'd take pictures of." He said looking at her, very confused. He wasn't a model by any means,

"I...uh...I guess I'll stand in front of it if you want me to..." Shiloh backed up a bit, looking a bit uncomfortable. "What...what do you want me to do? What do I do with my arms?" Shiloh's arms were as stuff as a board by his sides, obviously not knowing how to pose for a photograph. The boy looked down at the ground then back up towards Zoe and her camera. "Uh...is...is this okay?"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe watched as Shiloh fidgeted. This was odd; he'd been so bouncy and energetic moments before. had he just been that wrapped up in his own little fantasy world, with the pirates and the like? That made some sense to Zoe, since she was one to hide behind her camera and all. She had to fight the urge to bite at her lip as she tried to work it out. Shiloh probably didn't want her to pry though, and that definitely wasn't something Zoe was wont to do.

At least she had a question to answer: "I take pictures of everyone and everything," she said, her gaze returned to the building. "There's something wonderful when you capture that exact moment in time. It's just here, one moment, frozen forever onto the film. That moment will never exist again, but it's still forever trapped."

She let out a sigh then nodded and looked over at Shiloh. He was already moving, and Zoe actually laughed at his awkward posturing. "Don't worry so much about it!" she said, waving a hand. "Just be yourself, do whatever you want to do. Uh, you can look at the building or just be amused by bushes or even just keep talking to me if you want. Pretend I'm not here," Zoe paused, then had to fight another giggle. "Unless you're going to be talking to me, in which case, you should probably look at me."

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Shiloh scrunched his nose, what was he gunna do? Okay, just be yourself, that's what Zoe had said. What did that even mean? What was his normal self like? He gulped and pushed his hair away from his eyes. "Okay..." Maybe Shiloh would do all the things she had said to do? Yeah, that was a good idea. Shiloh looked back at the building for a few moments, then over to the bush and smiled at it. That's what Zoe had said, right? Be amused by it? Well, the more he stared at it the more it started to look kind of funny. A small grin crossed his face, what if it was a talking bush? Woah, that would be cool! Or what about someone who could turn into a bush! Well...that power would kind if suck! But still it was really funny! The grin widened and finally turned into him laughing at it.

His attention soon turned back to Zoe, realizing that he had just laughed at a bush. "Sorry...I was just imagining that the bush was...uh...someone with the power to turn into a bush. How funny of a power would that be?" The boy asked with a lop sided smile. "Did...did any of the pictures come out good?"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe watched and waited quietly as Shiloh did his thing. This, this she was used to, and it felt almost painfully familiar. How many times had she done precisely this with someone? That had even been part of her normal life, part of her life with Ava---no, no, Zoe wasn't  going to think about that. She didn't need to be sad and somehow drag Shiloh down with her. The girl was half convinced that the reason Shiloh had sunk so quickly was because he'd been talking with her, the great sucking void of sadness and emptiness that wandered about on campus.

but he seemed to be, well, more chipper in a few moments. Zoe watched his growing amusement through the lens, snapping shots every few seconds. She already knew that this was going to make a beautiful montage, especially as Shiloh finished with a laugh. Soon Zoe was smiling herself, though the expression was mostly hidden by her rather bulky camera.

He turned then, and Zoe actually got one picture of him about to ask. She then lowered her camera, the smile still ghosting upon her lips. "That does sound like quite an interesting power," she said. She didn't think it particularly useful, but then again, how useful was a paralyzing touch? "I'm sure several of the pictures turned out most splendid. I won't know for sure until I develop them, but I assure you that I will do so the moment they are ready."

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"It'd be good for camo in the woods I guess, but that would totally suck to use in the real world." He said with a grin. "How silly would a bush in like...the lobby of a building be?!" Another bit of laughing. "Oh, okay!" Though he wasn't the most excited about being photographed he was incredibly excited to see how they came out, maybe Zoe was a good enough photographer to make him seem photogenic.

"Zoe...?" He started, looking back at the building then back to her. "Can we be friends? I don't really know anyone here yet...and im you're new too...I just figured we both don't know anyone so...nevermind..." He shook his head, that was a dumb idea. She was older than him, she probably wouldn't want to be hanging out with some stupid freshman. Why would she? "Forget I asked..." Shiloh waved his hand. "I'm sure you'll make tons of friends with people in your own grade...older students don't really like hanging out with freshmen...right?"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe actually felt a smile sneaking up on her at the mention of a bush in a lobby. It was the sort of oddity that would be quite interesting to think about. In truth, Zoe's first thought was that she'd love to photograph a scene like that. Such a moment would just be so unusual that it would need to be forever captured on film and shown. Zoe could already feel the poetic verses creeping around the back of her mind.

The question returned her attention to Shiloh, not that it had truly wandered far. Zoe stared at Shiloh, blinking in slight confusion as the boy verbally worked his way through the offer of friendship. After the first few words, Zoe was tempted to hug the boy and assure them that as long as they stayed together they'd be perfectly alright. Her face soon became lined with pity and near worry, not believing that it was Shiloh who was worried about making friends. It all evaporated into laughter as he finished.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh,' she said, waving her hand and taking a deep breath, trying to return to her earlier concerned expression. "It's just," she bounced on her feet for a moment, working her mouth as if to help generate the next words: "I don't make friends easily either, not really. My closest friend back home was my step-sister..." Zoe trailed off, remembering Ava. A flush of guilt took over and she bit her lip again, taking a deep breath to steady herself. "But yes, I think we can be friends," she nodded and then tried a confident smile. It wavered, but at least she put forth the effort.

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"Really?!" The boys face lit up, he was nearly jumping up in down from happiness. "Okay!" Overjoyed that he had made his first friend at Bellefonte, Shiloh have her a thumbs up(because he couldn't touch her, at least that's what Zoe had said.) The kid looked around and bit down on his lip slightly. "I wonder...I wonder if we'll make more friends? I mean...at least here we all have powers...it shouldn't be that hard to talk to people...right?" He asked, mostly to himself really.

"I guess we'll...uh...we'll just have to wait and see, huh?" Shiloh turned his attention back to Zoe. "If I can ever help with with taking pictures and stuff just lemme know! That was actually really fun, I've never been photographed like that before...besides like...family pictures." He said shaking his head. "Those are sooooo laaaaaame."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

"I'm sure you'll make more friends," insisted Zoe, smiling slightly and nodding. When Shiloh was bright and sunny like that, he seemed irresistible, at least to Zoe. She couldn't imagine him having issues with finding more friends. Everyone here did have that common ground: the struggling of the powers and all. Keeping that in mind, Zoe nodded at Shiloh's question. Yes, yes it shouldn't be that hard, not really.

"And I'll make sure to look you up if I need more models," said Zoe, again nodding. She was certain she would; there was something about Shiloh that certainly appealed to her sensibilities. Not that she didn't appreciate his personality; that much was rather obvious, but she also found him aesthetically appealing. She didn't think that was really appropriate to try and explain to someone she just met. Instead, she offered a slight smile at his assertion about family pictures, again nodding softly. "So, um, did you need any help finding anywhere else?" she asked, trying to remember if that was why he'd been wandering in the first place. She knew he'd found her after she'd fallen, but she couldn't quite recall what he'd been doing. She did want to at least offer one last help, or at least see that he was alright before she left him to his own devices.