Just Slightly... Blurred {Open}

[Dante Salvatore]

There was that saying, Its the quiet ones you have to watch, well that fit him perfectly. Almost too perfectly. He felt blurred around the edges, like the occasional ghost, or spirit's as some people called them. Most of them always appeared somewhat blurred, translucent and only half there. Well that's how he kind of felt. Like he wasn't all there at times.

He did it took himself really. Going off to always sit by himself. He didn't make for very good company. Given the constant migraines, and depression that often caused them from repressed emotions. One could argue that Dante was, in two words, fucked up. Of course he really didn't see that as his fault. He hadn't asked for any of this. All he could do was try and make the best of it, but it was hard feeling so alone in a whole school filled with other kids just like him; having to deal with similar problems.

He should be getting out of here soon enough, but he doubted it. They wouldn't let him go. He was still using his telepathy for the wrong reasons, still using it against people to find out all their dirty little secrets so he could possibly use them against them should the need ever arise.

Sometimes he really liked being here, and other times he felt like getting in his car and jut driving away, and not returning. What would they do? Would they track him down? Drag him back here and make him finish learning? He already knew how to use his abilities. They really weren't that difficult to grasp. He could block others from getting in his head pretty well, which was the most difficult thing about being telepathic, and he was getting better all the time. He didn't have friends, so he had plenty of time to practice on it.

And seeing ghost had no skill involved. He saw them, and they saw him. That was is. But he didn't mind. In fact, he liked talking to them. It was always interesting. Some of them were really old, and therefore able to tell him all sorts of things about the time in which they lived. It was better then history class.

He sighed and leaned his head back against the treeing his back was already leaning against for some time now. He had a jacket, despite the warm weather, and the sun that kept shinning as if it were Dante's own tormentor, knowing he hated bright lights. He pulled his hood over his head, shading most of his face from the sunlight.

There was a pack of cigarettes in his pocket, his mind screamed at him to take it out and light one up, but he had promised himself to cut back a little, to not smoke as much. But what else was there to do? He pulled out his ipod, going through the music and hoping something caught his interest enough to give him something to do, just something to break the unbearable silence around him.

[Isabelle Amherst]

& I'm the girl who wishes on dandelions and still half-believes that it will work...

Isabelle Amherst, a sixteen-year-old, a best friend, a girlfriend, a psychic, a total dork, and above all, a free spirit, wandered across the courtyard. Clutched in her left hand was a bouquet, a rather large one at that, of dandelions. Humming the tune of a Saosin song to herself, she picked every dandelion she came across. Why wish on a single weed when she could wish on them all at once? Her coral lips were curved into a smile that was simultaneously innocent and mischievous. Innocent because she was wishing on weeds like a little girl, mischievous because it felt like she was hogging all of the world's magic to herself.

"That took way too long. This better work," Isabelle announced lightheartedly and half-sarcastically to no one in particular as she scanned her surroundings briefly and decided that she had --for the most part-- cleared that little area of all its dandelions. She smiled proudly. Her work was done.

"Well. Here goes nothing," she said under her breath while staring at her bouquet of weeds. She took in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and got ready to send a sea of tiny white seeds flying across the area... only to let her breath out softly and open her eyes again.

In that moment, she realized something. She was just about the most perfectly content person in the world. She was always happy, because she found fun and beauty in the smallest things. There was nothing that she wanted badly enough to wish for... and it would be a shameful and tragic waste to spend all of those lovely dandelions that she'd worked so hard for on something she didn't really want.

"Youuu. Quick. Make a wish," she said suddenly and playfully, addressing the person who happened to be nearest to her, which was Dante. She looked over at the brown-haired boy, then noticed his somewhat distressed expression and body language. The boy appeared to be nervous... or anxious... or just uneasy in some way. Whatever it was, he didn't seem too happy. Clearly, he needed a wish granted far more than she did.

[Dante Salvatore]

There was nothing on the ipod to listen to, at least, nothing he was actually interested in listening to at the moment. He put the ipod back in his pocket, where it would probably remain, he just hoped this time he'd remember to take the stupid thing out of his pocket before he washed the jacket. There usually wasn't, not when he was in one of his moods, which seemed to last longer each time.

Dante always went out of his way just to be alone, but sometimes, on very rare occasions; like once every blue moon, he welcomed the chance to talk to someone. If, that is, they weren't to annoying or something. He wasn't really paying attention to anything around him, his mind was closed off, not bothering to listen in on others thoughts if they got too close to him. He was simply, starring ahead of him sort of wishing the day would hurry up and end already. Hadn't the day been long enough?

He felt as if time was being drawn out painfully slowly, as if it should have been dark hours ago and the sun was simply refusing to corporate with the natural order of things. Maybe he would need medication if he continued to think that the sun was his enemy...

Suddenly, he heard the whisper of footsteps, really close to him; closer then they should have been able to get without him noticing. Dante really wasn't slipping. No.. he was just tired. It had been such a long day. "Youuu. Quick. Make a wish," He'd heard that strangely happy, playful voice before, but he couldn't really put a name to it. Did it start with an 'I'? That's right, her name was Isabelle, every time he saw he she was extremely happy. That was one reason he'd never, ever read her thoughts. No way was he going to torture himself by hearing all the happy little thoughts she had. It was bad enough he had to listen to it out loud.

His hand reached up to pull the hood down off his head, and turned to look at her, and to his surprise, she was holding out a dandelion to him. Now he understood why she'd told him to make a wish. He thought for a second, and decided to just humor her for the moment, better to go along with it then hurt her feelings for no reason.

The corners of his lips curved up into a small, friendly smile, and reached out to take the dandelion from her. Carefully, being it close to his lips. What would he wish for? He already knew the answer to that. Dante took in a somewhat deep breath, and then blew out. Those tiny little white seeds went everywhere, catching the slight breeze and taking off across different parts of the area.

He looked back at Isabelle, and then at all the other dandelions she had, then his gaze slid back up to look at her. "Planning to make a lot of wishes?" He asked, his voice slightly amused. And he wondered, for the briefest moment, what it would be like to be so innocent, so happy with life. In a weird way, he sort of envied her for that, because he couldn't be that happy. Ever. It was a simple fact, and one he had learned to deal with a long time ago.

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[Isabelle Amherst]

Isabelle was almost surprised when the boy actually turned his head and acknowledged her. A lot of people were annoyed at her naturally chipper personality and were baffled at the fact that "happy" was just her automatic default setting, so she had half-expected him to ignore her or tell her to leave him alone. Instead, when he took the dandelion, Isabelle smiled with childishly innocent amusement as Dante blew on it and made his wish. She took a moment to watch the seeds float about the area and returned her attention to Dante upon hearing his question.

"Actually, I thought I'd make one epic wish. Like, for Hitler to have never been born or for Pluto to be considered a planet again. I don't know." Isabelle returned his friendly smile with one of her own and then observed that he seemed to be irritated by the sun. Nonchalantly, she took a few steps around him so that the brightness would be blocked by her figure. Getting a better look at his face, she thought that she might have recognized him, but she wasn't sure. She was sure she had never spoken to him before, though, which was strange to her considering she made conversations with everyone-- student, teacher, institute official, or stray cat. She mentally made a note to herself that she would say something to him if she ever passed him in the halls or anywhere on campus.

"So what did you wish for?" she asked curiously, eyeing the now seedless stem.

[Dante Salvatore]

It wasn't a bad idea really, to have one big wish instead of a lot of small wishes, he supposed it gave better odds to the wish actually coming true. However, he had stronger doubts on her two spoken wishes. Hitler, thought crazy, had been a genius, but that was the past, can't really change that, still.. it was a nice thought. History would be better without that tragic incident. As for Pluto.. well, it seemed unlikely that it would ever be counted as a planted again. Poor Pluto.

She moved, of course this movement was meant to be subtle, but Dante had years of practice reading people, not just mentally. Obviously, she noticed his not-so-slight irritation at the sun for being too damn bright and annoying. Her figure was not blocking the sun, keeping it off his face, and felt almost immediate relief, and a little more comfortable.

His thoughts had been drifting again, because when she spoke again it surprised him, though he didn't let it show too much. He looked down at the stem he hadn't realized he was still holding, and then dropped it. Soft blue-gray eyes looked back up at her after watching the seedless thing fall to the ground. "I wished the sun would set faster." She would probably ask why, so before she had the chance he explained a little, "The light bothers my eyes. Gives me migraines. And I don't exactly enjoy getting those." No, migraines were the worst, it felt like they were splitting his skull in half or something.

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[Isabelle Amherst]

Apparently, the boy really did not like the sun, at all. Isabelle silently wondered if his dislike for sunshine included the figurative sunniness of her personality and contemplated toning it down... nahh.

She listened as Dante explained his wish... hah, she should have guessed. "Maybe you should go become best friends with one of those light and dark manipulation people," Isabelle suggested with a slight chuckle. "I'd help you myself, but I'm not really sure how precognition would help in this situation."

Looking around, she thought about sitting down, but that would have required moving out of the way of the sun. She settled for crossing her legs and shifting all of her weight to one side.

"Hey, maybe we can wish your migraines away," Isabelle said, her eyes exhibiting their usual fun-loving glow. Turning a bit to the side so that she wouldn't be sending a juggernaut of white seeds straight into Dante's face, Isabelle blew on the bouquet of dandelions, not really paying attention to the fact that she probably looked like a blow fish while doing it and smiling when the seeds took off into the air. Then, she looked back over at Dante.

"Did it work?" Her voice was quite the odd combination of sarcasm and expectancy.

[Dante Salvatore]

A slightly wider smile graced his lips. Yes, that was a good idea. It wouldn't certainly be very convenient, though of course, it would help if he were an actual people person. Which he wasn't. Never really had been. Oh sure, maybe he had one or to friends back farther then he could actually remember, but ever sense he started seeing ghost and hearing others thoughts, he'd all but completely retreated into himself. Still.. it wasn't a bad suggestion. "I just might have to try that." No, he wouldn't. But he was being polite. He was good at that; acting. It almost seemed like a natural born gift. Dante was good at pretending to be someone he wasn't.

Precognition huh? Well, that was a useful power too, though, as she said, it couldn't help him. He was, however, just slightly surprised she'd told him her power. Most wouldn't even dream of doing something like that simply because there's a certain hind of control and power in mystery as well as information. Most people would be shocked to know all the nasty, dirty things other people thought about. There was a lot of information he could pick up from people when they didn't realize their thoughts weren't as privet as they thought.

He saw her looking around, but didn't bother asking why. She was thinking about something, and Dante was tempted to just take a peek inside her head to find out what she was thinking about. And then decided against it. No way was he going to go lurking around in her head though, the last thing he needed was for some of that happiness to rub off on him or something.

Wish his migraines away. Oh if only it could be that easy! "Your more then welcome to try." There was a undertone of amusement to his tone, though he wasn't laughing at her or anything. No.. she was just so.. so.. damn. Dante didn't even have the write words to describe how she was. Well... other then the word interesting that is.

He'd said she was more then welcome to try, and she did. Taking the whole bouquet of dandelions, and blew the tons of white seeds off into the air.

So now she wanted to know if it worked, and actually it did, but then, it had started to feel better shortly after she had blocked the sunlight from touching his face. So said he couldn't say it was her wish that helped him, but then, there wasn't a reason why he shouldn't tell her it was her wish that's helped him, if only to play along for a short time. "It most defiantly helped. Thank you." Another smile. Surely it was a miracle. He felt like some should be taking a picture, photographing the evidence that Dante was actually capable of smiling.

He looked around for a second, and then back at Isabelle. "Would you mind much if we sat down?" It wasn't that he was getting tired of standing, but more like, getting tired of having to make her stand just so he could keep the sun of his face. He could move. Get away from the tree and sit down with his back facing the sun. Which would have been the smart thing to do in the first place.

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[Isabelle Amherst]

For some reason, Isabelle got the feeling that the boy wasn't going to take her suggestion to heart. It was a consistent feeling that she'd had since she approached him-- that he was really just humoring her, keeping her amused while thinking to himself what a weirdo she was and coming up with a getaway strategy in his head. It was a fairly common reaction to her chipper attitude and sometimes bizarre behavior. Usually, she didn't care much, but something about this person made her hope he'd stay. While most people were simple and predictable (especially since she was psychic), the person in front of her seemed to carry an air of mystery about him. Although she'd just barely spoken to him, she could tell that he wouldn't be so easy to figure out, that it would take much longer to break down the barriers he appeared to put up around him. Being the stubborn and defiant type, it was likely that she would continue to take an interest in him until those barriers had been effectively demolished or until he arranged a restraining order against her-- whichever came first.

It most definitely helped. Thank you. Somehow, Isabelle got the same "just humoring you until you go away" vibe from his words. She smirked.

"You lie," she replied, though her tone was still lighthearted and playful, no hint of anger or offense. "Thank you for humoring me, though. It's much appreciated," she added with a smile. Looking back at the clump of seedless stems in her hand, she muttered, "Stupid dysfunctional dandelions," before tossing the useless things over her shoulder, back onto the grass.

Something was off about Dante's smile. Not that it wasn't a nice smile, it was, but it just seemed like it didn't belong. Almost like his face had been stuck in a serious expression for so long that it needed to be oiled before a smile should have been possible. She didn't know him well enough to know if she was way off base or not, so she didn't say anything.

"Sitting would be ideal," Isabelle agreed upon Dante's suggestion. She smiled and added, "How about we go find some shade by a tree or something?" With his migraines, shade seemed like a more practical solution than dandelions. "My name's Isabelle, by the way," she added finally, after several minutes of conversation. "or Isy, or Isis, or Belles... or just Isabelle. Your pick."