early morning birds (EVIE)

[Eddard Falkenberg]

He really hated waking up from dreams like this - since he thought he'd gotten them under control already. Growling and grumbling, Ice rolled out of bed and yawned, stretching before rubbing his neck and putting his feet down. The floor was cold - testimony to the changing weather, and he flinched lightly before quickly padding over to find some socks. He'd need to get some clothes cleaned soon enough, otherwise he'd be the perfect example of an unkept professor. Not that the students wouldn't have a ball either way, seeing as he tried to make English fun for them. Sort of. They still had to do homework and yes, writing essays was a norm. He just didn't like doing the books the traditional way, so he hoped the boys and girls enjoyed it. Finally getting the socks on, he sighed and rubbed the last of sleep from his eyes - he'd never rest anymore tonight anyway.

Finding the trainers he'd left somewhere at the bottom of the bed the previous night, he surveyed his bedroom a little bit before sighing and deciding he might as well do something useful. Like, clean. Glancing at the clock on the nightstand (and shuddering when he saw the blaring 2:30) he grabbed a T-shirt and went to make himself some mint tea. That usually helped with the calming down process. While the leaves soaked he gathered the strewn clothing and straightened the bed covers before thinking 'what the heck' and pulled them off as well. He might as well be thorough about it if he was at it. Jabbing his foot on the bed leg, Ice swore under his breath and stumbled, dropping the basket and snorting at himself. Perfect. Now he had to do it all over again. Quickly as to not waste any more time of his already abnormal schedule, he regathered everything and went into the bathroom to find the washing machine gathering cobwebs. Well, wasn't his fault Nadine and Anna wanted him to stay longer and his holidays had meant not using his own things. Soon enough the rhythmic hum of the machine could be heard while he washed his face and resumed his trek across the small apartment, back to the kitchen and living area. He had no TV - never really watched it - but his laptop was still on. Moving his mouse a little while carefully placing the cup down, he eyed the notifier that kept telling him he had one new mail message.

Million to one it was from Anna or Nadine. He'd win the lottery if he kept at this, since it really was from his baby sister. Annoying, obnoxious, puberty-stricken baby sister whom he adored. It would seem she had a crush on the local heartthrob now. Trying not to roll his eyes, he typed out: Anna, our dad was a heartthrob back in the day. Trust me, they're more trouble than they're worth. Then he paused and tapped his nose a little bit, thinking how to explain to his sister that he really didn't like details about her love life. Seriously. But before he could do anything else he heard a sputtering sound that accelerated his heartbeat and launched him to the bathroom again. Stupid thing. He glared at the washing machine that had died on him - again. Inspecting what was up would take hours - and he DID want to sleep again at some point. Not be woken every five minutes by a machine coughing on socks. Three hours later, he was still no closer to the solution or the mail to Anna, so Ice decided he had enough. Kicking the washing machine, he went to change into training clothes. Running would help him out. As he was leaving the apartment he could hear the rhythm of washing again, and smirked to himself. Sometimes, brawn did win over brains. And he knew the training field would help clear his mind so maybe he could catch a nap inbetween classes or something. Breathing in the crisp air, Ice started for an easy jog, though to his suprise, he could see he wasn't the only one out so early in the morning.

[Evangeline Covington]

Whenever Evie's mind was troubled she would run. Now there's a difference between running and running away. When you run away you flee, attempting to separate yourself from your problems. However, running with the intention of returning could be taken as a way to simply clear your mind so you can face your problems with a sensible mind set. Running away was something Evie had done a long time ago to escape the society that had deemed people like her as 'freaks'. Running away from her family was one of the chain events that had lead her to Hammel, so now (looking back on it) she didn't completely regret it. However, Evie was better than that now, she looked at herself in a whole new light. So when she ran, she ran to clear her head while remaining within the place where she belonged.

The training field was silent on the Hammel Institute grounds. This silence indicated that Evie was up and about far too early. She had classes to teach that day which meant that she probably should have been sleeping rather than running, to keep herself energized for the day ahead. Tonight, however, that proved to be impossible. Flashes of her past lingered in her dreams and when she attempted to just lie there in her bed, her thoughts would linger on the fact that she had accidentally placed her father in a coma when she was merely fifteen years old.

Evie felt guilty every time she thought about her years before Hammel. Her parents had thought she was a freak simply because she had a gift that couldn't be explained. Placing her father in a coma had been the result of Evie unleashing all her bottled emotions that had bottled up over the years. A normal teenager would have simply yelled and screamed at her father, Evie had struck hers with a bolt of lighting as her powers raged out of control. The guilt Evie felt would always linger with Evie whenever she would think of that particular incident. However, these days (now that she was older and had gone through more life experience) Evie was able to argue with her self doubt. She would inform herself that her powers would have never gotten out of control like that if her parents had simply explored the unknown and supported her.

Although Evie was able to reassure herself that she hadn't been the only one in the wrong, she had yet found the courage to call her parents to see how they were and discover if her father had made a recovery. She expected them to only yell at her, maybe they would call the cops? Evie was far too happy with her life now to allow that kind of drama into it.

After conquering a few laps on the training field, Evie was sweaty and breathing heavily. She began running off towards the center of the training field, allowing herself to collapse on the grass when she got there, unaware that she now had company. As she rested in the grass, she closed her eyes, inhaling and exhaling as she slowed down her breathing. Why did humanity have to be so resistant of the meta-humans? Evie thought. Were they really so different from the regular humans?

[Eddard Falkenberg]

Running made him forget about his problems - or lack of thereof - for a while. It took his mind off things, specifically the fact that he needed to prepare a couple of essays and then correct said essays once the students got to them. Ice really hated being an obnoxious teacher sometimes, but this was his job and he did like teaching, so there was no other way around this but to do what was required. Which meant following the curriculum and hoping the kids didn't hate you too much for it. Snorting to himself, he shook his head while he went for a second lap around the training field, breathing in and out evenly, or as evenly as he could while moving at the speed he was. Exhaustion would get him back to sleep for a couple of hours before he had to get to classes for the day, and the only way there was to do something. Fixing abroken washing machine didn't count.

But Ice had noticed he wasn't alone on the field, seeing as a brunette had veered off to the center of the area. Generally speaking, he and women didn't get along. Mostly. That seemed to be the case with the larger number of them though of course he could be wrong about this one. But because his darling mother had been oh so gracious during his growing up stage, Ice had some minor difficulties when coming close to people. Especially those of the opposite sex. But it would be entirely rude to just ignore her now that he'd seen her, and he thought she might be one of the teachers in the general high school area as well. Which meant he probably HAD noticed her before in the staff lounge or something, he just never paid enough attention. Now that sounded more like him, and he berated himself silently while slowing from his jog to an easy walk, still inhaling and exhaling regularly, while walking slowly towards the center himself.

"Looks like I'm not the only one who can't sleep." Well, not the proper greeting, but Ice was anything BUT proper when it came to these things. He was uncofomrtable and going out of his way to actually speak to this woman, although it would be something he could brag about lightly to Dr. Neville during the monthly sessions. The older man could probably be happy to hear one of his charges was acting semi-normal. Sort of. Stopping a few feet from the woman, Ice stuffed his hands into the pockets of his pants to keep them warm, his breath misting in front of his face. It was early enough to be quite chilly if needed, but he enjoyed weather like this, to be quite honest. It held a sort of mistery to it.

[Evangeline Covington]

The surrounding silence was a comfort for Evie. The silence made it feel like she was the only one in the world at that moment in time - meaning that her nagging thoughts were swept away in that moment. However, her eyes were open in a flash as an unfamiliar voice rung in her ears. In an instant her reflexes sprung her to her feet, her eyes searching for the owner of the voice, her heart racing.

Evie spun around, her eyes focusing on the handsome man that had caught her by surprise. Assuming that he was one of the new teachers that the Hammel Institute had recently hired, a sheepish grin began to form on her lips as she realised how much of a fool she looked right about now. "You scared me." Evie stated. She wasn't accusing him or anything, just stating a simple fact. "I wasn't expecting anyone to be out here this time of night." She added, keeping the conversation light as her heart began beating in a normal fashion. Technically it was morning, but Evie considered the night to be the time when normal people would be sleeping. Which technically, made her abnormal.

The man before her was someone that appeared to keep to himself (at least on the occasions where Evie had seen him in the staff room), so the two had yet been properly introduced. His name had slipped her mind as soon as one of the other members of staff had mentioned it (because without the face Evie was horrible with remembering names). However, now that she had seen the man's face, Evie knew that she wouldn't forget his name again once she heard it.

[Eddard Falkenberg]

He really shouldn't have been bothered by the fact she jumped to her feet and was obviously thinking of ways to defend herself. Especially since the whole Institute was in a state of uproar - hidden or not so hidden - that he was mildly aware of. But in a way it was still somewhat disconcerning considering the fact that Ice strived to be polite to people and to blend in as much as he could without losing his essential integrity. While he was good at erasing his edges to mix better with his current environment he'd always be his own person and no one would be able to tell him otherwise. Hence why he and any previous psychiatrists not including his grandfather had never really seen eye to eye, because frankly, while Ice was grateful for their taking the time for him, he didn't think they'd understood. Not until Dr Neville at least, and he was a good step ahead of anything else Ice had seen in a while.

"I'm sorry." His expression remained unchanged, save perhaps a little less tight lines around his eyes and corners of his mouth. Ice was not so good at expression emotions lately, especially not after the whole escapade in his adolescent years. Given the power he wielded, not something physical like others could be, he had to rely on keeping his thoughts to himself - mostly - and therefore his emotions as well. Which made it almost a little too difficult to interact with others of his own age and sex, though he was better with men by a wide margin than women. So this young woman before him was probably in for a surprise if she was going to stick around and talk to him because Ice had little to no intention on changing anything about himself to make her feel more comfortable or anything. This waswho he was; take it or leave it. But he'd initiated this conversation, so he was going to persevere.

"Same for me - I came out to get some air before everyone else wakes up." He had a double English literature course that morning with the seniors, and they had to hand in some essays so he was bound to be in a foul mood before long, considering the fact that correcting said essays had never been a favourite of his. But Ice was good at what he did, while his social skills were probably more than lacking. Looking at the brunette - who, he had to admit it to himself, being male after all, was cute - he sighed inwardly. "Eddard. Everyone mostly calls me Ned, or Ice, though." No fancy introductions here, no big words. Just keeping it nice and simple and as clean as it could get. Ice was all about simplicity in the long run, and also it kept his life good and neat. He wasn't that OCD when it came down to it, he just liked some things lined up in certain ways. Besides, seeing the future had it's ups and downs, so he knew he had to take care, especially if he wanted to talk normally to this woman without accidentally dipping into the future and seeing what would happen.