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Post by Admin Courtney on Dec 28, 2012 23:14:17 GMT -5
"Ah," Ashton said, understanding. "I guess I can see why they would be peeved with you. But you have all of this information in your head that you've gotten from everyone else's head! Can't really blame you for revealing something that would help them in the end," he admitted. "It's what I would do in your situation. They'll thank you later," he said confidently, swinging his legs on either side of the tree branch and balancing himself by leaning forward with his hands pressed to the cold, rough branch.
He involuntarily grimaced when she asked if crazy stuff usually happened at the power schools. "Pretty much. We try to avoid it, but what do you expect from kids who have uncontrollable powers, right?" He smiled slightly, trying not to think of the crazy shit that had happened in his life. He had never thought anything could happen to him. He had lived carelessly free and joyously, indulging in life and what his powers had to offer. He never really thought anything bad could happen.
Until he found out that it had.
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Post by emilybuj on Dec 29, 2012 0:05:51 GMT -5
Eloise sighed, "Damn it." she said. "I was hoping it was just the whole 'being a freshman' phase gone horribly wrong." She sighed a bit. She wondered what her dad would think about the things that were going on to her and her friends. She wondered if he knew if she'd be allowed to stay. Then again, she wondered why he would expect differently from kids with hundreds and hundreds of different uncontrollable powers.
"I'm Eloise, by the way," she said, realizing that she had yet to introduce herself. Eloise often forgot to partake in such simple social expectations, since she could just help herself to her company's name and other information. Ashton Matherson, Grade 11 , Spiritus.
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Post by Admin Courtney on Dec 29, 2012 0:24:45 GMT -5
"So you're in ninth grade?" he assumed after her freshman comment. "I'm in eleventh." He didn't realise she would already know that. "Nah, the stuff doesn't really stop. I've never seen it be too bad, though," he said, ignoring the screaming in his mind that was his thoughts reminding him of AJ. "Just high school drama plus powers seem to make things worse. But I don't know. It's fun, being at these schools. Something interesting is always happening, that's for sure!"
He smiled at Eloise when she introduced herself, glad he now had a name to put to her face. A pretty face, at that, but he wouldn't allow himself to think any further than that. Not after the AJ thing, as he was now referring to it as. "Hi, Eloise," he said, holding out his hand. "I'm Ashton. So which school are you in, anyway? I don't recognise you from mine - Spiritus - but that could be because we're in different grades."
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Post by emilybuj on Dec 29, 2012 0:48:59 GMT -5
"Right... 9th grade. Canadian stuff," she corrected herself. She still wasn't used to some of the terminology they used in the area. She smiled as he introduced himself and shared his information, partly because she already knew it all. It usually made her laugh when this happened. She reached down and shook his hand politely, before continuing. "I'm from Veritas," she explained. "And I'm sure kids at my school go through just as much drama, so thanks for warning me about it now." She rolled her eyes slightly as she thought about everything that had happened up to this point, and the fact that she still had 7 more semesters to get through.
"Out of curiosity..." Eloise started, deciding to use this opportunity speaking to an upperclassman to her advantage, "have you learned how to control you power better?" Eloise sighed slightly before continuing, "Because... I feel like I've made zero progress since getting here." Then again, the teachers wanted her to embrace her power. Eloise wanted to learn how to STOP.
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Post by Admin Courtney on Dec 29, 2012 1:09:42 GMT -5
Ashton had to laugh. "I take it you weren't born here then?" Eloise was not the only student who was an international. The schools were probably made up of 50% Canadian students and 50% international. He assumed she was from the States, but could not guess where exactly. She didn't have any obvious accents that helped him guess, either.
"Well hopefully you can avoid the worst of the drama. I'm sure it doesn't happen often," he said. At least, he hoped it didn't happen often. It happened to him, but he wouldn't wish it on anyone else. No one deserved that.
"To be honest with you, I don't even know what controlling my power even entails," he admitted. "I draw something, it comes to life. I mean, sometimes I can make my drawings do what I want them to do, but I don't think I can stop my drawings from coming to life. If I can, I've no idea how. I mostly just muck around in my power class, though." He grinned sheepishly. "It's more fun to just draw and watch what I draw come to life. It'll probably screw me over in the end."
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Post by emilybuj on Dec 29, 2012 1:17:49 GMT -5
"Yeah I'm from Seattle," Eloise said with a nod. "So not too far, but I still stop numbering my grades after 8," she explained with a laugh. She felt really removed though. Even though she wasn't too far from home, she felt like she was in an entirely different world half the time.
"Fair enough," Eloise said in regards to Ashton's powers. His ability was much, much different than hers and he probably had less to control. "I'm just tired of the migraines. I can block out a lot of thoughts... sometimes everything. But it takes up a lot of energy," she explained. She sighed. Ashton probably didn't care about her issues with her power. She stood up, and grabbed her bag off the higher branch. Opening her notebook to an empty page she held it out to Ashton along with the pen she had dropped earlier. "Would you show me?" she asked somewhat eagerly. Other people's powers fascinated her.
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Post by Admin Courtney on Dec 29, 2012 1:27:32 GMT -5
"Oh, so you live even closer to here than I do," Ashton commented. "I live on the east coast, in southern Ontario. It's nicer here in Cranbrook though. The mountains help." His city was okay, and there were nice places within driving distance, but there was something about the mountain air that made him really enjoy Cranbrook. After he finished high school, he would probably apply to an art school in British Columbia or something. He had no idea what he could do with an art degree, considering all of his drawings came to life, so it was not like he could sell his paintings. In fact, he wasn't even sure it would be possible for him to attend an art college because any assignments would literally up and walk off the page, but it was all he could think to do. Maybe he would skip the whole college scene and do something else, except that college seemed like a fun opportunity to take advantage of.
Eleventh grade and he had no idea what to do with his life. Well, that was fantastic.
He shook the thoughts from his mind.
"Ehh, people up here know what freshman and the like mean. I guess in your mind I'm a junior, then. I think we mostly use those terms for college and university, though. Except not all programs are four year, so I don't even know," he said with a laugh. Now that his mind was off his problems, he was a lot more relaxed and acting like himself.
"I'm sure with time and practise you'll be able to use less energy to block out thoughts and focus your attention on particular ones," he said. "I can't imagine it's particularly fun hearing what everyone has to think."
He hesitated when she asked him to demonstate his powers.
"I don't know," he said slowly. "The only things I've been able to draw well have been pretty dark and disturbing. And anything else I try to draw just sucks, which a big drag." However, he took the pen and notebook she offered, but was at a loss as to what to draw. Something small wouldn't be so bad. "What should I draw?" he asked her, looking up from the notebookd.
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Post by emilybuj on Dec 29, 2012 1:51:18 GMT -5
"Well..." Eloise thought, feeling kind of bad that Ashton felt so down on himself that he couldn't even do what he enjoyed. "Personally I'd love for you to draw Chris Hemsworth or Adam Levine or something so they'll come alive and I can steal them... but that might be a little much," Eloise joked with a sassy little smirk. "I'm easy to please. A butterfly or a bird or something? I really just want to see how your power works," she said, slipping down from her higher branch onto the one where Ashton was sitting, so she could observe his work. Internally she thought that her personality may be acting too strongly and she may scare Ashton away, but her excitement and fascination was too overbearing for her to truly care.
"If you really don't want to, then you shouldn't," Eloise said. "But I don't care if it's crappy or 'dark' either." Though she wasn't sure what he meant by dark. Usually nothing phased Ella anyway.
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Post by Admin Courtney on Dec 30, 2012 16:07:35 GMT -5
Ashton couldn't contain his laughter when Eloise mentioned two hot celebrities. "Actually, I have never tried drawing an actual person before. Not full bodies, anyway. Floating heads are not as attractive as you might believe," he said with a raise of his eyebrows. "But a butterfly I can do."
And so he pushed his hesitation and apprehensiveness aside and sat the notebook on top of the branch, then slouched over it with the pen in hand, his face contorting into a look of intense concentration as it always did when he drew. He never usually liked to draw with pens, but that was the only tool around. And so he drew the outline of the butterfly wings and with his tongue slightly sticking out of the side of his mouth, finished the simple sketch with a bit of shading.
Then Ashton sat up and held out the notepad, whereupon the butterfly's wings shuddered and then stretched off the page. It looked strange, since it was made of only pen ink. Ashton's best use of his powers were when he had colours to work with. The closer something looked to real life on paper, the better it looked when it came to life. The butterfly looked real, except that it was all one colour. It fluttered off the page and landed on the branch above them, its wings moving slowly as it rested there. Ashton was pleased to find it did not turn out dark like his most recent artwork, but then again, he had been drawing something specific.
"Well, there is it," he said with a shrug.
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Post by emilybuj on Jan 3, 2013 16:51:11 GMT -5
Eloise smiled cheekily at Ashton's genuine humor. He seemed to have not laughed in a long time, so it was nice that he could do that. She watched Ashton intently as he sketched, careful to make the butterfly as perfect as possible - because he couldn't erase pen. And his mind fixated on the lack of colour, but it didn't matter to Ella. She couldn't contain a smile as she watched in amazement when the butterfly seemed to peel off the page and flutter into reality. "That's amazing!" Eloise said honestly. She wished she could do something that cool.
"Honestly, I mean it," Eloise said with a little nod. Ashton seemed so unsure about himself and his power. She felt like she had to convince him.
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Post by Admin Courtney on Jan 3, 2013 17:00:02 GMT -5
"Yeah," Ashton said non-committedly. He still knew the butterfly could have been better. Its wings were uneven, although that was probably something only he noticed, as the artist who created it.
"The thing is, it can't fly far from me or it will disappear, and it will disappear in the end anyway, since the art doesn't last forever. The longer I spend on it, the longer it lasts," he explained, watching as the butterfly flew to another branch. The smaller the drawing, the less of a life it had, since they were the quickest to draw. The butterfly would not last long.
"It's kind of a useless power, though. I mean, I like it, don't get be wrong, but I've yet to be sent on a mission. I doubt I would be very useful." He smiled wryly. "I mean, imagine I need to protect my mission partner. 'Uh yeah, just hang on, criminal with a gun. I need to draw us up a shield. Give me five minutes.'" He shook his head.
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Post by emilybuj on Jan 3, 2013 17:12:03 GMT -5
Eloise sighed a bit at his thoughts. She couldn't deny he had a point, but she knew how it felt to feel kind of useless. "I suppose..." she said, "But I mean... your power at least brings you some sort of joy. Or at least a sense of calm. I can't say that about myself." she chuckled. She watched as the butterfly started to almost dissolve - out of existence nearly as quick as it came in.
"I still think it's pretty amazing," she promised. Especially since it took a good deal of talent to draw anything well to begin with. While his power was 'god-given' he must have had to work hard to become a good artist to put his power to any good use at all. She was also glad he could put aside whatever was bothering him long enough to laugh and show off a little bit. She couldn't help but still be curious. But El resisted the urge to delve deep into Ashton's thoughts.
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Post by Admin Courtney on Jan 3, 2013 18:13:32 GMT -5
Ashton instantly felt bad for complaining about his power when she had it worse. She was completely right; he enjoyed his power despite its uselessness; meanwhile, Eloise's gave her a headache. Probably literally. If she hated her power, he shouldn't be complaining about his when he liked it.
"Yeah, that's true," he said. Ashton gestured at the nearly faded butterfly. "So that's my power, then," he said, somewhat lamely. She had asked to see it, and there it was. He handed her notebook and pen back. The paper was clean as if he had never even written on it. His power saved trees, at least.
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Post by emilybuj on Jan 5, 2013 13:58:35 GMT -5
Eloise's eyes were focused on Ashton now. Despite the fact that his thoughts were not completely on something else he still managed to come across sad and distracted. "You know... it's really none of my business..." Eloise started. "But whenever I come across somebody who is sad or... upset about something... it's usually the first thing on their mind."
She couldn't' help but wonder why this wasn't the case. "From the moment I could hear you I knew something was wrong, but you haven't even given the slightest thought toward what might be making you so... apathetic." She pulled one of her knees up to her chest, and rested her chin on her knee. "I'm just curious if that's because it isn't a big deal... or if it's a really big deal." Perhaps knowing this could help her understand her power, or at least the people she heard on a day to day basis.
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Post by Admin Courtney on Jan 5, 2013 15:54:07 GMT -5
Ashton's shoulders slumped at her comments. Was he still that obviously upset? He was trying so hard not to be, but he couldn't help the haunting thoughts of what happened two years ago that refused to go away. Maybe he should just start drawing again. Who cares if what he ends up creating is scary? At least they will disappear and he can lose himself in the art.
He stopped swinging his legs and sighed.
"I'm trying not to think about it," he admitted. He hadn't meant to reply, but the words came out anyway. "I wish it would just go away. That it never happened. But it did." He stared out at the snow-covered ground, looking at but not taking in the sight of the hibernating trees and the way the sky was dulled with white-grey clouds. It was an interesting reflection of his mood, but of course the weather had nothing to do with his feelings.
Maybe the less I think about it, the more likely it will go away, he thought, but he did not believe in the words. If only it were that easy. But he could not take back what he had done. Whether or not it was his fault, it had still happened.
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