Drained, ((open))

[dimitri]

"I only said it because it was true!" It took him a moment to realize how loud his voice was and he glanced about, a bit furtively. He had been working on a personal project in the library earlier but it had seemed like everyone and their brother was there so he had grabbed his phone and his laptop and headed off in search of a better place to work. He had just settled down out here when his mother had called, she'd mentioned his uncle, he'd said something sarcastic, and now she was yelling.

"Telling Simon that me and Dad are freaks doesn't count." He hissed into the phone, while he smoothed down his hair nervously. His mother corrected his grammar and thats when he had to be done. He was getting so frustrated he could feel energy building in his hands. He closed his eyes, ignoring her next words, focusing instead on draining the power out of his cellphone. It was the hardest part of his power so far, other then aiming the blasts. He still wasn't good at either of those. Apparently his frustration was working in his favor though, because his phone beeped rather loudly and his mother stopped what she was saying midsentence.

He spoke up before she could again, "My phone is dying, mom. I gotta go." He hung up, then examined the battery life on his cell. It was blinking at him urgently. He made face and crammed it into his pocket, sitting back down on the edge of the fountain where his computer was. It had turned off at some point. He pressed the power button, then again. No response.

"Dammit...." He muttered darkly, pressing the button again, more forcefully. He could drain things, he couldn't, and wasn't sure he ever would be able to, charge things. He didn't feel like going to get his charge though, he was grumpy and he kind of wanted to hit something, but that would end poorly. He pressed the power button again, still nothing.

[issie]

The courtyard, Issie had found within days of arriving at Silas, was one of the best places to be for some peace and quiet -- or perhaps, it was one of the best places she'd found so far. She expected there were probably quieter places she hadn't found yet, but, she hadn't needed to go looking yet. In any case, having finished a somewhat dull class, and not quite feeling up to heading back to her dorm, Issie had made her way instead to the courtyard for some fresh air and sunlight. There was something about sunny days that just made her happy, and so as she wondered along the main pathway towards the fountain, she was smiling to herself - silently humming a little tune in her head.

Reaching the fountain just as the curly blond haired boy sitting there hung up his phone rather abruptly, Issie lifted an eyebrow as she watched him stuff his phone in his pocket, and then try his laptop apparently without luck. Repeatedly.

"I think it's dead," she gestured in sign language, before frowning as she remembered that this wasn't her old school, and chances were this kid wouldn't understand a thing that she signed -- assuming he'd even seen her anyway, which he may well not have done - and, if he hadn't that was probably a good thing. Signing at hearing people was usually considered a little odd.

Still, he didn't look to happy, and Issie never had been any good at ignoring people that weren't happy... so, after tilting her head to consider how to get his attention, she opted for crouching down in front of him - then made two gestures that she knew tended to be self explainitory. Firstly, she pointed at him, then she made the 'ok' gesture with her hand, lifting an eyebrow questioningly as she did so - the result, hopefully, being that he understood she was asking "You ok?"

[dimitri]

Dimitri was still trying to convince the laptop it wasn't dead by repeatedly pressing the power button, which was working not at all, when a girl appeared in front of him. She was crouched down and he felt his eyebrows go up in surprise at her sudden appearance. He hadn't been paying too close of attention to his surroundings in his frustration and now there was a... well a very attractive girl in front of him. She signed out something that he translated roughly to 'you okay?' and he looked a little more confused as he hesitated, then half nodded and half shrugged.

He was angry, yes, but most people didn't really want to hear that when they asked if you were okay. And besides, he wasn't even sure if she could understand him, why else would she be signing? Although he supposed people who were mute or deaf would sign, and either of them could likely at least sort of read lips.

He decided to operate under the assumption that she was able to talk and hear him, and was just signing in case he was still on the phone... that he had clearly shoved in his pocket. Okay, so it wasn't a perfect assumption but he didn't know sign language and she had to cope somehow so it probably wasn't that farfetched.... right? "I uh.... accidentally stole the power from my uh... my computer..." He said, indicating the currently useless hunk of metal, plastic, and circuit boards. He wasn't sure if that was polite though, talking to someone who might not be able to hear him, but he wasn't sure if asking was polite either.

He really didn't want to offend this girl, and focusing on not offending her was at least taking his mind off of the stupid phone call. Okay, so maybe asking her what was wrong with her was rude, but certainly not introducing himself, right? "I'm... I'm Dimitri..." He looked up, meeting her eyes carefully, hoping he wasn't taunting her with her inability to speak or possibly hear language by accident. He was just unsure the correct... protocol, as it were. And he was awkward enough in normal, everyday encounters. This was not normal, it wasn't everyday he got to talk to what appeared to be an attractive, slightly older girl who looked concerned for him and maybe couldn't speak. All of those were abnormal for him, in fact.

[issie]

Tilting her head as the boy half nodded, half shrugged to her question, Issie frowned a little as she looked at him. That was an committal confirmation, if ever she saw one - which, pretty much meant he wasn't really okay - which was what she'd suspected anyway, but, still. This was when a normal person would ask if he was sure, and if he wanted to talk about it... but since she doubted he spoke sign language, getting that across to him wouldn't be the simplest.

As the boy explained about what he'd done to his computer, Issie looked at it in surprise, before looking back to him with an eyebrow raised. Stealing power, that was an interesting one - it wasn't one she'd come across yet... she wondered if it was linked to Electricity manipulation (she'd met someone with that ability), but, then again... if it was, wouldn't he put the electricity back again? Pondering the possibilities, Issie's attention turned back to the computer and her face furrowed in a thoughtful frown.

Which was slightly rude, Issie scolded herself, putting her attention back to the boy and giving a sheepish grin. I S S I E she spelt out carefully in the air backwards (so it would be right-way-round for him), the path of her finger leaving a trail of blue light to highlight the letters temporarily.

Studying his face as she returned her hand to her side, Issie decided that he looked a little nervous... or, uncomfortable... or something. It wasn't the first time someone had, and probably wouldn't be the last time for either of the reactions - but hopefully his reaction was the first reaction, and if so hopefully she could reassure him some. Reaching into her bag she dug out her pen and notepad and quickly scribbled a note before holding the paper out to him. "Relax. I don't bite (usually =D). And I can hear you fine, I'm just, not so good at the whole talking back to people deal." Phrasing it like that, to Issie, made it sound like she was teasing herself a little - and she hoped that was how he took it.

[dimitri]

He saw her eyebrow raise and then her thoughtful frown, as she eyed his computer and he figured that meant she could understand at least decently well what was going on. He raised on hand at her, wiggling his fingers a little, "I'm an uh... an.... energy manipulator..... I can... I can steal energy and uh... sometimes do things with it.... I...I don't really have great control yet....." He felt his face flush a little at that last admission. He felt like he was at a school of gifted geniuses. None of them seemed to have issues with their power regularly and he accidentally drained his cellphone pretty much everyday. Granted, there was very little power in a cellphone, those batteries were like toys.

He felt his jaw drop open a bit from her spelling her name for him though. Now that was cool, that was what he wanted. That was awesome. He let his eyes find hers again, and there was a solid beat before he realized his mouth was still open. He ran a hand through his hair. In that time she pulled out a notebook and scribbled a little note to him. He read it once, then once more to give himself time to respond. That made him feel a little better, at least less like an asshole for talking to her out loud. "It's uh... It's nice to meet you.. Issie? I uh... don't do that talking to people deal... very well either...... I guess..." He offered her a shy smile, and looked at the ground for a moment.

When he looked up again he realized she was still crouched in front of him and he scooted over a bit. It was completely unnecessary, since there was plenty of space on either side of him, but he did it anyway, and motioned at her, "D'you wanna... youknow, sit?" He felt like a huge dork but she was taking his mind off of things and he didn't really want to go back to his room or sit here and think about things. The mild threat of her saying no was tempered by his desire to not be alone.

[issie]

Issie could empathise with struggling to control powers, and as she watched Dimitri blush at his admission, Issie frowned again - her mind considering her own lack of control of her powers... she didn't want to tell this basic stranger the whole story about why she didn't talk (and amazingly, he hadn't asked!), but seeing him clearly feeling a little disappointed in his lack of control made her want to do or say something to try and make him feel better. It was juggling how much to say, enough that he understood she wasn't just saying it to make him feel better, but not so much that she had to go through the embarrassment of explaining the whole truth.

Saved from having to think what to say - well, gesture or write anyway - as Dimitri stumbled over greeting her and then offering her a seat, Issie gave him a little smile as she nodded and pushed herself to her feet again - then moved to sit in the gap he'd made - one leg folded underneath her on the side of the fountain, the other dangling off the (dry side) edge. Dropping a hand into the water, and swirling it around a little as she put her thoughts back to the whole control dilemma, Issie eventually gave a little sigh before she started writing on her notepad again - angling it so he could read what she was writing, while she was writing it.

"Your control will get better, that's why we're here, right?" That was the easy part, the reassuring part, the part that didn't require her saying too much about her own powers. That was only words though, and were probably ones he'd heard before. "I can control bits of my power, but it's taken time..." Tilting her head as she considered how to explain that, Issie wrote her name in the air again, but this time parts of letters faded completely almost as soon as they were written, while others stayed a little while, and yet others stayed far brighter then the rest. In the end, it didn't really mean a lot - just, a random cluttering of lines, that if joined together correctly would spell Issie well - but, unless you knew what you were looking for wouldn't mean much at all.

"Writing properly that way took time," she added, back to the notebook again (it was just so much quicker) "- and there are still aspects of my power I can't control, no matter how much I try." Which was a mysterious statement, and probably just going to make him wonder what she'd meant by it... but she really didn't want to go it further. So, looking up at him again, making it her turn to catch his eyes, so gave a little grin before scribbling a more light hearted statement.

"Besides. You talk better then I do."

[dimitri]

He shrugged at her question, and half nodded again. "I suppose so...." She started air writing again, with the explanation that she could only control some of her powers and he watched as she did the name writing trick again, only this time far less readably. He could see how that would be annoying but her next statement intrigued him far more. He glanced up, trying to evaluate what she had just written when she flashed him a little grin.

Her smile was a little infectious, however, and he felt his own lips twisting into a small smile. He half laughed, hoping it was a joke, "I uh... I suppose so... But your handwriting is much prettier." He joked back.

He thought about it for a moment more, wondering if she had changed the subject so that he wouldn't ask what she couldn't control. But he was curious. He assumed her power was light related and light didn't seem like something that could be terribly distracting. Well, distracting maybe, but destructive? He almost always hand wrote his papers before typing them so that he didn't end up ruining them through stress.

"I uh... don't mean to be rude... but uh..... what do you mean there are parts you cant control...? You seem really... good." He had looked down at the water before he asked, but now he glanced up at her from under his hair, more then a little nervous that he was going to deeply offend her.

(OOC: Gonna be a bit slow, school is starting monday and I have a lot to take care of, but bear with me <3)

[issie]

It was inevitable really, that a mysterious sort of comment was going to raise questions. Issie had known it when she made the comment, and while she'd hoped that Dimitri wouldn't ask what she'd meant, she couldn't blame him for doing so. Still, the question made her sigh and drop her gaze down to the fountain, focusing her attention on her hand trailing through the water.

The vague swirling ripples she was making with her hand though, just reminded her of what she was trying to hide. Her failing. Her inability to control her own 'gifts'. Sometimes she wondered whether the gifts were worth the sacrifice of not talking out loud... mostly she was able to dismiss the thoughts - not talking out loud was actually quite fun sometimes, and when she was around people who understood sign language it was easy to just be herself without worrying about talking. It was other times, times like now, when she wondered.

Pressing her lips together as she took her own turn to glance up at the boy through her own hair, Issie sighed again before giving a half hearted smile at him. Sometimes it was easy just to change the subject, brush of the question, or just plain ignore it if the person was just asking out of curiosity, or didn't deserve an answer. She'd even out right walked away once or twice, when the person didn't even deserve the time of day.

This wasn't one of those instances though, and running her dry hand through her hair to push it back out of her face, Issie looked at Dimitri straight on. Brushing off his question didn't seem fair, he was asking out of curiosity perhaps, but it wasn't just out of curiosity, he had a lack of confidence in his own control of his powers, and Issie never had been good at ignoring people who needed help... even if that help was just a little encouragement that they weren't alone.

The decision made, Issie took a deep breath, before letting out a little whistle -- just a single note, and not even a second long, but enough to produce a swirl of orange light in between them. Whistling a second time, a slightly lower note, the swirl of colour turned to a deep green before fading away as Issie fell silent again.

"That's what happens anytime I open my mouth." she scribbled on the pad of paper. Biting her lower lip, as she kept her eyes on the pad of paper, lain on the fountain between them. This was the moment when she was never sure how people would react. Not that she'd done it many times.

OOC. So so belated, sorry. Real life just did that whole... real life thing... lol. I am back now though, so, posts may be a day or two delayed, but nothing like this one.