Who Says Pasta Can't Be Intimidating? (Open)

[Jayden "Jay" Hersch]

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Jay concentrated on the bulls-eye of the target in front of him, a good thirty feet out from where he stood. However, he had no bow in hand, nor any other sort of normal weapon. Instead, he had a quiver of carefully constructed arrows by his side, though they were far from normal weapons - instead of the expected wooden shaft and metal tip, the entire collection was created from.... Well, pasta. Jay had carefully constructed the objects out of a special dough he had made himself, and had made sure each was perfectly straight and weighted before coming out to practice shooting them at a target.

Who said he couldn't do anything cool or intimidating with his abilities? He had a small grin on his face as he raised his hand, making another arrow rise from the quiver before he carefully aimed it at the bulls-eye. He took a breath, concentrated, and jerked his hand forward - the arrow went flying, as though it had been shot from an actual bow, and with another thunk!, buried itself in the target, just outside the center.

Jay didn't do stuff like this often. He would never really have a use for it, he thought; it was just something fun to do, and a way for him to prove to himself that his ability wasn't really as lame as it seemed.

[Eros Nau]

Eros needed to train, release some energy. She jogged onto the training field, a ways away from someone who was throwing - what was that? Pasta? She shook her head, thinking that could be possible, and began setting up a timed skeet shooter. Once that was set, she began warming up, jogging in place and moving around, trying to warm her body up. The shooter was set to start throwing pidgeons momentarily.

A few more seconds, Eros adjusted her stance, her hair already pulled back in a characteristic low bun, and the machine threw the first clay pidgeon. Eros tensed, in a pitcher-like stance, then threw a fire-ball the size of a baseball at the flying piece of clay, breaking it on contact. She smirked to herself, then readied for the next pull. She had thought she would feel awkward, as this was a high school training field, but it felt good to have an open place to practice and release energy. She was already breathing slightly heavily, having jogged from her apartment to the field, but was exhilarated nonetheless, ready to be back in training, away from the scrutinizing glare of her father. The clay shot again with a faint thunk. Again she tensed, again she threw, again the pidgeon broke.

[Jayden "Jay" Hersch]

Jay was concentrating so much on his own training that he didn't notice the other shooter until he had ran out of ammo. By that time, the bulls-eye of the target was peppered with pasta arrows, and as he went to pluck them out and put them away, the balls of flame caught his attention. He let out a low whistle as they hit the clay pigeons, impressed by the skill and accuracy with which the thrower was hitting them. Once he had collected all of his ammunition, he wandered over to the woman, wondering if he had seen her around before. She looked a bit familiar, but it could just be coincidence. She also looked a little old to be a student, but he wasn't the best at judging age.

He waited until there was a pause in her throws. "Nice shooting!" he called out, stopping once he was within a few yards of where she was standing. "Pyrokinesis, yeah? You have some great control; I know a lot of students who can't even form a fireball, let alone toss it with such accuracy." Being a trainer, these were sorts of things that he noticed and was interested in. "Oh, sorry, the name's Jay, by the way," he added with a smile, offering a hand. "I have to say, you look familiar, but I don't think we've met."

[Eros Nau]

Continuing her concentration, Eros smirked to herself as the skeet shooter began tossing three pidgeons at once. She continued breaking them accurately, only missing one or two that flew out of her range. As the machine came whirring softly to a stop, she noticed the other thrower approaching. She tried to put on a neutral face, knowing that her nerves at being approached were probably showing. At his compliment, she blushed slightly.

"Thank you! At Kocher I trained in Krav Maga - it really helped my focus, and my family always took part in shooting events on base in Germany." She took his hand and shook it, showing the firm grip that her father had always reprimanded her for - it was unladylike. "I'm Eros. I'm starting soon at Greenview, but am looking to continue my training hear at Hammel." After the introduction, she couldn't help but mention his strange choice of ammo. "Was that...pasta you were using?"

He seemed kind enough, and the talk had immediately turned to something that she did not think was mundane, which was always a good sign. Perhaps he could be a friend, or an ally. She needed plenty of those.

[Jayden "Jay" Hersch]

Ah, a Kocher girl! Jay knew little about the other meta school, but he was impressed by what she was saying. "That's impressive," he told her genuinely, very intrigued. "I can't say I know a lot about Krav Maga, but it's obviously helped you tremendously. If I ever have a student with pyrokinesis, I may have to look into it," he added with a grin. It was always useful to have these bits of information for future use, especially since he was still somewhat new at this training stuff. He noticed her firm grip and returned it, his smile widening. She was a pretty young thing, but he could already tell there was probably more to her than met the eye. "Nice to meet you, Eros. I graduated about a year ago, and came to work as a trainer here."

At her question, he laughed and pulled out one of his makeshift arrows, offering it for her to see. "I've had to think creatively to make my ability seem less lame than it sounds," he told her. "Pasta manipulation isn't exactly the most intimidating of abilities, yeah?" He chuckled again, raising a brow as he waited to see her reaction.

Jay was always open to meeting new people and making relationships, especially with someone he thought he could learn from. And from what little he had heard from Eros so far, he thought she could definitely be someone he could learn from.

[Eros Nau]

Eros gave a genuine, but small, smile. "Thank you. Yeah, martial arts is one of the routes that Kocher pushes pyrokinetics towards. It's a great way to encourage discipline of emotion, especially when so many of us have anger problems." She paused, thinking slightly. "Actually, do you know anyone her who uses Yoga to train? Or who teaches Krav Maga in town? I'm looking into continued training, there's a lot of stuff the Kocher trainers could do that I would really be interested in learning, but they all really centered in martial arts. It was a really impressive show." She was surprised that conversation came so easy. Perhaps it was because she wasn't stumbling around in Swiss-German, a language that she still couldn't quite grasp, despite her years of living at the school and her fluency in German.

"Nice to meet you as well! I don't think I've ever seen anyone handle pasta so well." She laughed slightly, then examined the pasta arrow he handed her. "Do you get different results with different types of pasta? Like whole wheat or quinoa pasta, or fettucini and spaghetti?" She examined the pasta closely, slightly amazed that someone had made pasta deadly. "Personally, I would be pretty afraid to have pasta arrows thrown at me..."

[Jayden "Jay" Hersch]

"So the whole pyros-have-a-nasty-temper rumor isn't all that much of a rumor?" Jay asked with a small grin. It had always seemed like a sort of stereotype to him, but who knew? Maybe it was true. Still, Eros seemed harmless, apart from the whole ability to hit a clay pigeon with a fireball with extreme accuracy. At her question, Jay's mind immediately went to his friend Amélie. "Actually, yes!" he responded with an enthusiastic nod. "Amélie Tachibana, another trainer here, uses Yoga with her student. I'm sure she would be happy to talk or train with you, she's very friendly." She only had one student too, and even though he heard Phoenix could be difficult, he was sure she would have some free time to lend to someone interested. "As for other martial arts... I know we have some students that practice, and I'm sure there are other staff members experienced as well. I would have to ask around a bit, but I'm sure we could find something." He offered a friendly smile, showing that he would be more than happy to help her find what she was looking for.

He laughed at Eros's compliment. "Thanks. I mean, I've only spent the last ten years or so of my life working with the stuff, so I'm glad it shows." He gave her a lopsided grin at her question. "Yes, actually. It's a bit hard to explain, but they definitely have different... I guess you could say personalities?" He rubbed the back of his head; he wasn't sure how to explain it, but it definitely felt different depending on what type of material he was working with. Jay chuckled again. "I'm flattered. I'm glad that someone can appreciate the deadliness of pasta." Not that he would ever actually use it in that way. It was all just in good fun.

[Eros Nau]

Eros shrugged. "Well, for me it was more of a problem going through puberty - and it wasn't as much of a temper issue as just and all around explosive emotional one. But yeah, my powers are harder to control the angrier I get. I've just learned to be more disciplined with my emotions. Otherwise it causes problems." And as much as she hated to admit it, being here was probably good for that as well. Being away from her father meant much less arguments - due to the time difference, it was much easier to talk to only her mother, when her father was otherwise occupied, and she knew that her father would never respond to the weekly letters she would send to her mother and sister.

She brightened as Jay mentioned Amelie. "Yeah? That would be great, I'll have to see if she could take me on - for some reason I feel like the deep stretching in Yoga allows me to reach deeper into my abilities, keep going even when I think I've run out of steam." She gave a small chuckle at her own pun, and shrugged to find out no trainers used martial arts. It had been so helpful. "I also think I saw a gym in town - I'll have to check that out and see about training there. No flames, of course."

She gave the pasta another once over before handing it back. "No, I definitely appreciate it. At Kocher we were a lot more strictly divided than it seems we are here - in training, anyway. There was only one other pyrokinetic, and he was a lot more accomplished than I was, but all of the other elementalkinetics trained at the same time, in the very early morning, and we had our own specific area for training, and then of course in classes we weren't allowed to use our powers - so I haven't seen very many evidences of metas beside the elemental displays at Kocher."

[Jayden "Jay" Hersch]

Jay nodded understandingly; he could sympathize with Eros, even if he hadn't had to deal with such a potentially destructive ability. "It makes sense. I know a lot of metas whose abilities are directly tied to their emotions, especially kinetics." His roommate Zack was an example - though he had an ability pretty much the opposite of Eros's (hydrokinesis), Jay knew that his performance with his abilities could change depending on what kind of mood he was in. "It sounds like you know yourself very well though, so I'm sure that helps with control," he added with a smile.

"I'm sure she'd love to," Jay assured her. "And I bet she would agree - she really enjoys Yoga, and though I can't speak for her or her student, I think it would definitely be beneficial for... Well, anyone to do it, really." He had done his fair share of the meditative activity during his years at dance school, and had learned a lot from it. It was amazing how important just breathing correctly was. "Ah, yes, Josef has a gym nearby; he's a Hammel alumnus, actually!" If that was the gym that she was thinking of; Jay had been in there a time or two. "Although, I do doubt that it is fireproof," he added with a laugh.

"A pyrokinetic more accomplished than you?" he asked incredulously. "Considering how well you seemed to be doing, I can't imagine what he could do." Jay had a slight fear of fire, especially after his accident - he hadn't been burned directly by any open flame, but friction and heat had definitely done a number on him, among other injuries. "Huh, that's an interesting way to train," he mused. He couldn't imagine not training with various other types of abilities - it helped him train his own, in a way. "Well, I'm sure you'll find all of the abilities we have here at Hammel even more intriguing, then," he smiled. "How long have you been in town?" He was curious to learn more about her.

[Eros Nau]

Eros nodded enthusiastically. "Knowing myself definitely helps, especially when I can feel myself getting upset or angry - it's really easy to explode when you don't know your limits." She thought of the times in the past summers, when her father would corner her, asking about grades, fights, anything of the like. If she had lost sight of who she really was, who she came to be through training or school, those arguments could have been a lot more volatile - she'd only ever left a burnt handprint on one of his jackets as she'd brushed past him to get away from his eye.

Again, another small smile. "My mother was actually the one who got me and my sister into Yoga - she had a lot of joint pain when we were younger, and we had a lot of fights, so that was how she decided to fix it." She ran her hands through her loose hair, checking that not too much had gotten out of the bun, before crossing her arms across her chest. Standing still was making her cold. "That's great that he's an alumnus - think he'll offer a Hammel discount if I promise not to burn the place down?" She laughed slightly, fighting a small shiver.

Her eyes got wide as she thought of Johann, the other Pyro at Kocher. "He made figures with his flame, as well as fire tornados. I'm not sure how he did it, but it was an amazing sight to see. And he could also make huge flames, while only burning certain items. Like he could be standing next to a non-meta, created a circle of flame encompassing both of them, and the non-meta would be completely unscathed. He did it for the talent show, actually. It was impressive, and he was younger than me to boot - I honestly think he had some powerful sociopathic tendencies - I feel like that's the only way he could have such control over his emotions." She closed her eyes, remembering his figures. The way he danced as he created fire-dragons in mid-air, that could fly around and hang for several minutes. It had been so beautiful.

She snapped out of her reverie, however, at his next question. "Oh, erm, I'm really not sure - maybe a day or so? I still haven't unpacked much of my stuff."

[Jayden "Jay" Hersch]

"I'm sure it does," Jay nodded, completely understanding what Eros was saying. He was very glad he wasn't a pyrokinetic - though he was pretty mild-mannered most of the time, having such a potentially dangerous ability alone would have been enough to set him on edge more, and he would never forgive himself if he ended up accidentally hurting someone, especially the guy he spent so much time with.

"Ahh," he breathed in understanding. "Sounds like an effective answer to the problem. I just finished dance school last year, and while I was there it was recommended that I take some Yoga classes for breathing and flexibility, among other things." Being on the somewhat muscular side, the stretching had definitely helped him become less stiff and more fluid with his movements. It only it had also helped him stop being a klutz... He scratched the back of his head, chuckling at her comment. "Ah, if he did, I would go to his place more often," Jay replied. As it was, he usually stuck to the training rooms for his own practicing - at least those were free.

Jay let out a whistle as she explained her fellow pyrokinetic's talents. "I'd love to see that... From a distance," he told her, laughing lightly. This guy's control sounded amazing; he had never heard of such feats from any kinetics he knew. "But hey, I'm sure with enough practice, you can get to that point too!" Some metas were just gifted with natural talent like that; and he could already tell Eros was quite the successful kinetic herself. "If you ever want to train with another element manipulator, my roommate is a hydrokinetic - maybe you guys could give each other tips?" He shrugged; it was just an idea. "He's a trainer here too."

"Oh, wow, so you just got here," he replied, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Are you settling in alright? I'm sure it's a huge change from Kocher." He couldn't imagine leaving Hammel to go to another country - he had traveled before, of course, but never for extended periods of time. "And if you any help finding places in Pilot Ridge, I'd be more than happy to help."

[Eros Nau]

Eros nodded, nonchalantly pulling out her ever present pack of cigarettes, inserting one in her mouth, and using her thumb as a lighter. She breathed in deeply, exhaled, then gave another little shiver. The cigarette helped warm her slightly. "I hope you don't mind...the cigarettes...they help me recoup a little bit after expending a lot of energy." She took another puff before continuing on, flicking her ash beside her.

"It definitely helped - every morning we'd do Yoga with our mom, and be way too tired to fight with each other before school or daycare, and then after that we were kept so busy, and my father didn't allow any silliness, so it surely insured we were always well behaved." She chuckled, remembering how well the yoga and other things their mother had done with them helped she and her sister grow closer, until they were inseparable. Of course, her father didn't approve, because of her differences, but her mother beamed to see them grow close. They were more than sisters. They were best friends. And now they missed each other desperately. Another puff, another flick, and she continued. "I'll still have to check out the gym - I really would pay any price to keep up martial arts. It's been so useful, and I got control of myself so quickly after starting."


Eros nodded again, enraptured. "It was so impressive. We trained together a lot. He helped me get this down, but I still can't sustain it for very long." Eros extended her free hand and focused on it for a moment. Slowly, flame extended from her palm, formed a bird, and flew in a small circle before dissipating again. "I'm good with accuracy and speed, but anything that takes a lot of time is really difficult. I have to practice quite a bit to get to be where I want." She shrugged at Jay's suggestion. "I...erm...don't really like water...I try to stay away from hydrokinetics. No offense to him, I'm sure it'd be great for both of us, but...um..." She was at a loss for words, and went back to her cigarette. When he offered another subject, she jumped at it.

"Yeah, I haven't been in the States for a long time, so it's a huge change - my mom spent a whole week telling me about all kinds of places and warnings about people in the states. It's definitely a change in language too - which is nice, Swiss German always gave me troubles, and there are so many dialects of German that it's not always the easiest to talk to someone new." She finished her cigarette and burnt the filter between her fingers before extracting and lighting another one. "I've got a great place downtown, so it's pretty close to everything. Thanks for the offer, I'll be sure to keep it in mind!"

[Jayden "Jay" Hersch]

"Hm? Oh, no, that's fine," Jay replied, although he was glad he was upwind of the smoke. He didn't judge people that smoked, but he also wasn't a huge fan of the smell. Or the potential side-effects of second-hand smoke. Still, he wouldn't say anything against it. And it was an interesting way to recoup after expending energy. Kind of like how he often craved carbs (note - pasta) after using his abilities.

"Sounds like maybe I should try using it with my own students," he chuckled. Granted, most of his students were incredibly sweet and well-behaving, but it still might be a nice activity to try. And he did remember some basics from college. He was curious about Eros's history, but not enough to pry. They had only just met, after all. "That seems like a great idea. Hey, maybe I'll start it up sometime. Although between training and dancing, I'm usually exhausted enough already..." he grinned, rubbing the back of his head. He did like to try new things, though.

"Oooh," Jay breathed as she created the bird out of flames. "That's really neat though. I can't really do that much with my abilities." Well, he supposed he could create a bird out of pasta and make it fly, but that seemed more dumb than impressive. He blinked as she seemed uncomfortable at his suggestion. "Oh, don't worry about it!" he assured her, fidgeting his fingers in embarrassment. "It was just a thought. I don't honestly know how he would feel about it either." He just had a hard time not bringing up Zack in... Pretty much any conversation. Jay was incredibly smitten.

"Yeah, I can imagine," he agreed with a nod. Language barriers had always been a bit of trouble for him; he had learned a bit of Korean from his parents, and was somewhat confident in small conversation, but that was about it. "Well, I wish you the best in your time here," he smiled warmly. Sensing the conversation was starting to come to a close, he began to turn away. "But yeah, if you need anything, just look me up - Jayden Hersch. I'd be happy to help you settle if you need it!"