Wait, Come Back! [Open]

[Rory Lennox]

Rory hadn’t been happy to look out her window this morning to find it raining outside again. Was it normal for one place to have so much rain? She missed the sunshine, but everyone here was assuring her that it wouldn’t stay like this forever and that the sun would come out eventually. At least it stopped snowing.

Still, even though Rory hated the rain, it was a great excuse to wear her bubblegum pink rain boots. Her parents had given them to her for Christmas after they found out she’d be attending school in a less…dry climate. It would probably be a rare occurrence for her to ever have to put them on in Phoenix.

So she tiptoed through all the puddles on the sidewalk, making her way to class and twirling her matching pink umbrella in her hands. It wasn’t raining that hard, but you definitely needed an umbrella. And even though it wasn’t hot out, it was still kind of humid. A lot more humid that Rory was used to. If she hadn’t decided to wear her hair in a ponytail today, it probably would have gotten all frizzy from the moisture in the air.

The wind was starting to pick up too. It whipped her in the face, catching her off guard. Her umbrella, which was supposed to be protecting her from the rain, all of the sudden blew inside out and slipped right out of her hand.

“Wait, no!” Rory called out after as the wind carried it in the opposite direction, like it was going to come back to her if she called for it.

[Appoline Meian]

The rain didn't bother Appoline much. Having grown up somewhere where rain, wind, and even lightning came at the drop of a hat would do that to you. One simply learned to be prepared or deal with the consequences.

To that effect, the Japanese girl carried her own umbrella - a clear but sturdy number that was built for heavier downpours and higher winds. It kept her mostly dry, save for the bottom of her long pleated skirt, which hung to her ankles in deep blue folds. But her wool peacoat, white blouse, and long dark hair remained perfectly dry.

Others were walking about, and because of her ability, Appoline saw the gust coming before anyone else, with just enough time to tip her umbrella forward. Others were not nearly so fortunate, including a younger student who had hers blown clean from her hand and spinning through the air. For a moment, it looked like the pretty pink material would go harmlessly by, but it changed direction sharply enough for the artist's gloved hand to snap out and catch it before it hit her.

Thankfully, it wasn't a more embarrassing reflex, as most often were.

Dual-toned eyes looked down at the damaged umbrella, black hair hiding half of her face. Without looking up, the older girl tucked her umbrella into the crook of her shoulder and tugged the misshapen pink thing back into its original form. Footsteps brought her eyes up, briefly, before they cast downward again.

"...Here." The word was a whisper, but it was the best a little wallflower like her could do. The umbrella was held out expectantly, folded back into better shape and ready to be used again.

[Rory Lennox]

It wasn’t easy to run in rain boots. Rory found that out very quickly as she chased after her umbrella, which was already being carried further and further away since the wind was clearly quicker than she was. Perhaps she should have taken her mother up on her suggestion to buy a new, sturdier umbrella before she moved here. But no, Rory didn’t think she needed a new umbrella. Her cute, little pink umbrella had served her well before. And it was pretty.

She could see it up ahead, twirling awkwardly through the air. She thought it would land in the grass somewhere, since that seemed to be where the wind was taking it. Then it abruptly changed course, heading straight for another student.

Rory was about to yell for the student to watch out for her runaway umbrella, but the girl just stuck her hand out and plucked it out of mid-air. Rory raised her eyebrows. It was actually pretty impressive. If the two had switched positions, Rory would have never been able to make a catch like that; it would have absolutely hit her in the face or something.

Now that her umbrella wasn’t moving anymore, she finally caught up to it, stopping in front of the girl. She was slightly out of breath, but accepted her umbrella as the girl handed it back to her quietly. “Thank you.” She said, examining it for a second before holding it back over her head again to shield herself from the rain. The girl was even nice enough to snap it back into its normal shape for her. “Sorry about that. I thought it was going to hit you.” Rory would have felt awful if her umbrella had actually flown right into the girl. It was a relatively light and harmless object, but it could probably do some damage to someone who wasn’t expecting it. Fortunately, she didn’t have to worry about that now.

“That was really impressive though. It definitely would have hit me in the face or something.” Which would be pretty embarrassing. “I’m Rory.” She said, holding her hand out.

[Appoline Meian]

Part of what enabled the slight girl to make the catch was her powers; the rest was good hand-eye coordination, though the lightning reflexes made up the vast majority of the swiftness and overall capability. As she may know in the future but vehemently bemoan now, it was part of what made her who she was, and nothing could change that.

The young girl who ran up to her was pretty and slight, and she looked so contrite about the near-accident. As if it was her fault that the umbrella was of lower quality, or that the wind gusted up so suddenly. (The latter may have been, for all she knew, but it would have been assumptive and rude to voice that concept aloud.) Despite her overall mood for the longest while, Appoline was not rude. She shook her head, conveying that she wasn't really all that bothered by the incident. Things like it happened too regularly for her to get upset at them every time it happened.

Unless you have fast reflexes, that happens quite a bit. Otherwise, even more embarrassing things happen instead.

The thought seemed both good and ill-humored - self-deprecatory and almost consoling at once. But the artist did not voice her thoughts, merely shook her head again as if to express that she believed otherwise. The offer of a handshake caught her off-guard, and a nervous hesitance stole over what was a mostly calm countenance.

"...Appoline," she finally murmured, her thoughts echoing her full name as she took Rory's hand and shook it gently. "D-don't worry about the, ah, the umbrella. It... it happens a-all the t-time where I c-came from."

[Rory Lennox]

Rory did feel bad that her umbrella had gotten away from her. She really should have been holding onto it tighter, but the rain in Phoenix wasn’t so bad that there were runaway umbrellas flying around constantly. The wind really took her by surprise.

She’d heard the girl’s thoughts echo out about the fact that she might be cause of the gust, and that could by why Rory felt so bad. Fortunately, that wasn’t true so Rory wasn’t offended. Everyone here had all sorts of troublesome powers, her own included, so those types of thoughts were obviously bound to cross people’s minds.

She raised her eyebrows expectantly, picking up the girl’s hesitance to shake her hand. Maybe she wasn’t from around here? Hammel had a lot of people from a lot of different countries and cultures. As she looked the girl up and down, Rory did think that might be the case. Even though it wasn’t warm here quite yet, she was still dressed like it was the dead of winter instead of early spring. But Rory shouldn’t really make assumptions; her mother always said that was rude.

She smiled when Appoline shook her hand, her grin broadening as the girl introduced herself. She recognized her last name, though the girl didn’t that part voice it out loud. “Oh, you’re Mr. Meian’s daughter, right? He’s my trainer.” She hadn’t been assigned to him for very long, but she knew that he did have a daughter that went here.

And her next comment confirmed that she wasn’t from here…well, it sort of did. “Where are you from?” She couldn’t imagine living in a place where flying umbrellas were common. Unless she was just talking about the weather. That could be it too.

[Appoline Meian]

Cultural difference was a part of the older girl's hesitance. A larger part was simply being shy and guarded in general, not really liking to touch people except in rare circumstances. Her culture did have more to do with her clothes, though; that, and she liked to be covered up as much as possible, so not to catch attention.

Appoline's entire body froze at the mention of her father, though. Of course he is. The mental tone was dark, bitter and a little scathing, with a hint of self-mockery. Everyone knows him. Not that the Japanese giant was hard to miss in the best of circumstances, but he was known to many students as somewhat stoic and oddly paternal. Delicately, she slipped her pale hand from the other girl's and simply nodded. "Ah... I see. Y-yes, he is my f-father."

Had Rory not had telepathy, the Asian girl's expression and tone would not have betrayed her. But thoughts were poisonous things, and easily heard by those who knew how to listen.

"Japan," she confirmed almost distantly, not looking at Rory for fear that she might look too close. "I grew up n-near Tokyo. V-very wild w-weather, sometimes." Images of rain starting to pour from a blue sky and winds coming up from calm days flickered in her mind, and it seemed enough to relax the teen. Home didn't have many fond memories of people, but the place itself wasn't so bad.

[Rory Lennox]

Rory was slightly taken aback at the reaction Appoline had at the mention of her father. She wasn’t trying to listen or probe, but the thoughts she heard from Appoline’s mind didn’t exactly sound pleasant. Maybe they didn’t have a good relationship? Rory’s relationship with her own father was a good one, though it wasn’t the same as the one she had with her mother. Still, she didn’t think she ever had any negative thoughts about him.


Rory looked at the girl curiously, “Is something wrong?” She asked, tilting her head to the side. If she hadn’t been able to hear what the girl was thinking, than Rory might not have been able to pick up on her change in mood. Or maybe it was her bitter thoughts that made Rory think that her mood had changed.

And then Appoline shared that she was from Japan, which Rory thought was very interesting. She’d met a few people who had come to visit her studio from other countries, and her friend Maggie was from Germany, but she’d never met anyone from so far away. “Oh, that’s so cool!” Rory said, “I bet it’s really different going to school here.” It must be. Vermont was so different from Arizona, and they were both in the same country. She couldn’t imagine how different it must be in Japan. From the images Rory was getting it seemed like a pretty amazing place. Maybe that’s why she was dressed the way she did. Was it cold in Japan all the time?

[Appoline Meian]

Appoline had used to have a good relationship with her father. She had loved him more than she loved anyone, and looked up to him and her mother as her only source of real strength in a world that seemed to hate her. Had nothing changed over the last couple years, it's quite likely that she would have thought nothing but the best (if slightly melancholy) thoughts about her male parent.

However.

The gymnast looked up into Rory's eyes, suddenly wary and her thoughts matching her defensive expression. Did I slip? Or did she hear?

Best to bypass the situation entirely and focus on something else, then. Concentrating on her memories of Japan itself, the older teen nodded. She faltered, memories of her friends (and not so friendly encounters) mixing with what she remembered of being in school in her home country. Images of different architecture, being in the same classroom most of the day... and students that mostly ignored her as the better of the two interaction types she had daily. "It's n-not in most w-ways," she stammered quietly. "B-but people are... are usually m-much friendlier." At least, so they pretend to be.

The thought continuation was more sad than angry, but still carried a bitter tone to it that hearkened back to her previous upset. It was clear that Appoline was unhappy with this line of questioning, and was anxious to simply go back to being alone, but she had to make at least an attempt to be conversational. It was the only courteous thing to do, and was culturally mandated. No need to be rude, after all, no matter how much she wanted to get away and just be alone.

[Rory Lennox]

Since her telepathy was still so new, Rory often forgot that the things that she heard were not supposed to be. And based off of the look that Appoline was now giving her, followed by her next string of thoughts, Rory could easily piece together that those were something she definitely wasn’t supposed to hear. Or at least something that Appoline wasn’t expecting her to hear.

Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment, but since Appoline brushed it off so easily, Rory decided that was best as well. No need to bring attention to her obvious error in judgement. She obviously needed to make more of an effort to block out the girl’s thoughts for the rest of their conversation.

“It’s not?” Rory certainly wasn’t expecting that. She didn’t have a lot of experience with Japanese culture aside from what she’d seen on television, so really her views were probably somewhat skewed. “Hmm…I always thought that it would be…” Then again, she was not the expert. Maggie had told her several new things about Germany and Europe that she didn’t know before.

“The people are friendlier here?” Rory did think that the people were nice at Hammel; she hadn’t met anyone who wasn’t yet. She’d never met anyone from Japan until now, so she could really make an accurate comparison. Well aside, from Mr. Meian, but he was nice. Rory thought the people here were friendly enough most of the time, though the East Coast wasn’t necessarily known for their hospitality. She’d gone to New York City for a dance competition one year and she couldn’t believe how rude people could be.

“So you like it here then?” Rory asked.

[Appoline Meian]

There were a lot of ways where things were different, but it was mostly little things. The classes were all the same, students were students no matter where you were, and there were good teachers and bad teachers, and codes of conduct, and so on. The more things change, the more they stay the same, and all that.

Nodding, Appoline shifted nervously. Talking about people was never really her strong suit, but then again, neither was getting out of a one-on-one conversation. "Y-yes, mostly," she clarified. Her thoughts did so further without intent: Just because people are polite, doesn't mean they're nice. So yes, this is MUCH better than Japan in that regard.

But, that didn't mean the artist liked it here. The question made her pause, though her instinctive thought was a very clear Not really. But she didn't really have a choice, either. She was where she was - no point in arguing about it when people were mostly going to treat her the same way they always had. Unfortunately, no matter where she was, she had no where to run to anymore when things grew bad... and she could thank her father for that one once again.

"...It has its benefits," the Japanese teen replied at last. She didn't say any more, and though she hadn't meant to, the phrase was somewhat curt for her. Not exactly a dismissal, but a clear sign of I don't want to talk anymore, so go away.

[Rory Lennox]

Rory thought that Pilot Ridge was very different from Phoenix when she’d first arrived, and it was. But it was mostly the atmosphere. It was colder here, and there were a lot more trees and grass and stuff. But she supposed the people were all pretty similar. She was lucky in the sense that she didn’t have to move to a whole other country, even though it did feel like it at first.

She gave Appoline a curious look, taken aback by the whispering thoughts that drifted over to her. Rory knew it wasn’t a good idea to pry into people’s minds, but she couldn’t help it sometimes. Most weren’t very guarded with their thoughts, and many didn’t even know that they should be, much less that they should know how. It wasn’t like Rory was trying to listen, and she was still having some trouble blocking thoughts out. “Well, that’s good then.” Rory said, a little unsure of how to respond. But it was good to know that Americans weren’t known for being mean, even if Appoline did think that most of them might be a little fake.

But based off of what Rory did hear, it didn’t seem like Appoline liked her home country that much, or at least she didn’t miss the people who lived there. Strange…the people were what Rory missed the most, among a few other things. And her next thought let Rory know that she wasn’t really happy here either, despite what she told the dancer.

Rory furrowed her eyebrows together, unsure of Appoline’s clipped response. Did she not want to talk to her? Rory was getting that vibe, telepathy aside. “Well…I probably should get to class…” She said, looking down at her rain boots, her tone less animated then it was before. But…maybe she was just reading too much into it… Who wouldn’t want more friends? “Do you want to walk with me?” Rory tried again, looking back up at the older girl.