Nice to the Fishes {open}

[Izzy James]

So far the fishes were alluding Izzy's grasp. He kept lunging at them, hoping to catch a koi in his bare hands. Each time though, the fish seemed to outsmart him, darting away just as his fingertips brushed their skin.

"Wonder if the fish are meta too," muttered Izzy, rising up and staring down at the swimming fish. Hard not to stare, actually, considering how pretty they looked. The Institute went all out stocking the pond, which really only added to the whole "fish are meta" theory. It really wouldn't surprise Izzy if a fish stopped swimming, turned into a guy, and started slapping him silly. In fact, now that he thought of it, Izzy started eyeballing the fish, wondering for a few seconds.As no fish transformations were imminent, Izzy figured he was safe to continue attempting his primitive version of fishing.

"Let's hope nobody's watching," he muttered, glancing around. He already felt silly enough as it was, lunging at fish like some blonde bear. He did have his reasons though, mostly involving his desire to focus and use his power. For each time he lunged at a fish, Izzy focused, trying to speed up his personal time or slow down time or do whatever it was with time that was supposed to be helpful in some form or fashion. Most of the time his power didn't seem to want to cooperate; which really wasn't that abnormal. The abilities had always been tricky.

Hence the fish grabbing.

Izzy made another desperate lunge, and as he did, he felt time slow around him. The fish seemed to be swimming in jello, or Izzy seemed to be moving at a blur. Or both. It really didn't matter, because it was seconds before Izzy was standing there, staring dumbfounded at a fish.

"I did it!" he yelled, thrusting his fist, and the fish, into the air. He turned, grinning like an idiot. He even began a slight dance of celebration, until the koi started flailing. Izzy made a dive, and wound up tossing the fish behind him. There he heard a distinct "smacking" noise: the noise of a fish slapping into something harder than ground. Smiling nervously, Izzy turned slowly to face whomever, or whatever, the fish had managed to nail.

[Chris Carpenter]

Chris was exploring. He'd slipped away from the dorms and was currently wandering around the grounds trying to take in the sights. He had that slight slouch that young boys often had when they're trying to look somewhat rebellious and otherwise 'cool' and while he wasn't exactly looking for trouble, he had decided that just about anything would be a welcome break from the monotony of this place. You wouldn't think it would be possible to be bored in a school full of metahumans, but somehow, he was managing it quite nicely. He had spent a few hours considering this remarkable acheivement over the past few days before finally deciding to do something about it.

Thus, here he was, wandering the school grounds and looking, in that way of young boys with more time on their hands than common sense, for mischief to get into. He'd thrown rocks at trees for a bit, chased butterflies without the use of his super speed (he couldn't afford the candy he would need if he used it much), and generally fiddled about until he found his way to the banks of the local pond. He'd skip rocks, but he really had no idea how to. Maybe Andi knew. He could probably ask her the next time they got together. His self-proclaimed big sister knew a lot of stuff.

He threw a few small stones into the water anyways, just to see if he'd figure it out on his own, but no, he really didn't know how it worked.

He quickly lost interest and was considering going somewhere else when he heard the noises from nearby and stopped to see another guy catching fish with his bare hands. The thirteen-year-old moved forward curiously to see if the other student was any good, but only watched in silence while he missed...and missed...and missed.

He was actually amused. This was kinda funny. Still, he felt a bit sorry for the guy. Maybe he could lend a hand. He stepped forward just as the other boy finally caught a fish and jumped up, whirling around....and smacked Chris right in the face with a koi.

For a moment, he was completely stunned. He really hadn't expected this. After all...who hit someone with a fish, really? And then his competetive young mind processed this and he clenched his fists, puffing out his chest. "Hey! You tryin' to start something?" he asked belligerently. Had he been older and bigger, it might look impressive, but as it was, it looked more like a hyperactive puppy barking at a stranger.

[Izzy James]

He would nail someone with a temper. Izzy tried a smile, and gestured toward the fish.

"I don't suppose you'd believe I was practicing my power?" he tried. Another nervous smile. Wasn't the first time that Izzy had dealt with people who looked more willing to punch him in the face than had a conversation, hence the ever widening smile. Hopefully it didn't make him look too much like a pain though; would be his luck to have counterproductive facial expressions.

"Do many people challenge you to fights using fishes?" asked Izzy. He paused, turning to look at the fish in the pond. "Because that would probably explain why there are so many fish. But, uh, yeah, give me a sec."

he walked over to try and pick up the fish, figuring that he might as well restore it to its rightful home before it died. Of course, he kept his eyes on the other guy the whole time, again trying that slightly nervous smile. No need to fight here, just keep moving along.

[Chris Carpenter]

Chris paused almost immediately and blinked in confusion. This hadn't been the reaction he'd been expecting. He was expecting to be pummelled, or blustered-at...but he wasn't expecting the older boy to back down and give in. This gave him pause.

Chris was used to the sort of tough (or at least, tough-acting) types who would bluster back and forth with threats and the occasional friendly (or mostly-friendly) scrap as a way of working out the pecking order. He wasn't quite so sure how to deal with someone who, when faced with that kind of confrontation, hastily backed down and apologized. "Oh," was all he said for a moment as his brow furrowed and he tried to find his stride again.

He could always treat it as though the other guy had given up. That woud probably make the most sense. It felt like a hollow victory, but hey, he'd take it. "Well," he said after a moment to gather his thoughts. He put his hands behind his head casually and gave a little shrug. "I guess I can forgive you this time. Just don't go swinging fish around like that again. Where you really training your power? What kind of power do you have?"

[Izzy James]

It didn't like they were about to start brawling, which Izzy definitely saw as being "good." Knowing his luck, this kid would have superstrength, or the ability to blow up people's brains, or something of the like. There was always the killer robot theory, which Izzy hadn't completely discounted yet.

"Hey, no problem. I'm sure stuff like this happens all the time though, right?" Izzy asked. He sincerely hoped so. Otherwise it might look just a little weird for him to be picking up a koi and giving it a personal escort back to the pond. The koi thrashed about in what Izzy was considering a thankful manner, so plus there.

He looked back to Chris, who'd been talking while Izzy had been moving, and nodded at the redhead. "But yeah, I'll keep the fish swinging to myself," a grin and a nod. "As for my ability, well, I can technically control time. Which is," he waved his hand back and forth, "let's just say it doesn't work as well as I'd like. Makes me wish I had something cool or basic, you know. Like superstrength. Or flight. Or superstrength and flight."

Just because Izzy hadn't seen anyone with multiple powers like that didn't mean it couldn't happen. At least, that was his thoughts on the matter. He shrugged.

"Guess we make do with what we got. So..." he stuck his hands in his pocket, "what do you do? You don't, uh," he looked over at the pond, "talk to fish or something do you? Because I probably owe them an apology or something."

[Chris Carpenter]

(so sorry I vanished. I fell and broke my elbow. Please excuse the short post for now, I won't be able to post a whole lot while I'm recovering)

Chris looked at the older boy a little oddly. He wasn't quite sure how to react to that sort of casual attitude. After all...this sort of thing couldn't happen all THAT often, could it? Just what kind of place had he wound up in. "All the time? Only if this place is really, REALLY weird," he said with a shrug as he watched the older guy save the fish.

"Only thing I'd say to a fish if I could talk to it would be 'how would you taste battered with lemon and tartar sauce'," he said with a shrug, "and I'm not sure the fish would have a big enough brain to understand anyway. I mean...it's a fish, sorry." He shrugged and took a seat.

"Time control, huh? Does that mean you can sleep in whenever you want and still make it to class on time? That would be cool...I'm not used to having to get up in th emorning and let me tell you, it's a real pain in the butt."

[Izzy James]

"Well, strange stuff happens, I guess," said Izzy. He tried to shrug it off, but was really feeling like he'd just inserted his foot into his mouth. The truth of it was that he'd barely been at Hammel, certainly not long enough to really understand that much about the goings-on. Soldier on, Izzy.

"Well, there's plenty of movies and stuff about talking fish," tried Izzy. He looked down, considering. "I guess they're not exactly that smart. But wouldn't someone with communication understand them anyway? They'd be good spies or something, right?"

Another shrug from Izzy. Per usual, he felt like he was stumbling about and trying to manage a conversation where he barely understood what was going on. For one thing, he'd never really looked at or thought about fish before.

Talking about another subject to stumble his way through:

"I wish it worked like that. Reversing's not exactly a specialty of mine," admitted Izzy, shrugging. "And, uh, well, I'm not exactly super at controlling my power. So even if I could reverse time like that, I'd probably end up in yesterday or something."

Which sounded like ever so much fun. Izzy looked over at Christopher, smiling in what he hoped was a friendly manner.

"So, yeah, I'm Izzy. I hadn't said that yet, right? Sorry, I kinda lose my place in conversations and stuff. It's the whole time thing."

And Izzy being a bit of an idiot, more or less.

[Chris Carpenter]

Chris snorted. "You're telling me..." He shook his head, dancing back and forth from one foot to the other edgily. He didn't really even notice he was doing it. It was just so hard to keep still all the time, especially when he wasn't really focusing on anything. "My power's speed. I'm really fast, but it wears me out and I get hypno...hypoga...really low blood sugar if I use it more than a little bit, so I have to be careful. Too bad you can't pause time, but I guess that'd probably really screw up the rest of the world so maybe it's just as well." Hadn't he read somewhere that time couldn't possibly stop because it would throw the Earth off its axis or something? Yeah, that would be bad.

"I haven't been here all that long, but this place seems to be a magnet for weirdness and craziness. I guess that's what happens when you get a whole bunch of kids with superpowers and stick them in a small area together. Someday one of the teachers or someone is going to write a tell-all book and it'll be a best-seller. Not too sure about fish being spies. I mean...they couldn't see or hear anything away from the water, so they'd have a pretty limited range. Still, maybe you're onto something. Never know, right?"

He shrugged as the other guy introduced himself. "You didn't say, actually, and it's cool. We've all got our issues. Since my powers started developing I feel like I'm on sugar high half the time and the other half I feel like I'm too exhausted to move."

[Chloe Marsh]

Water was good. You can talk to it and it won't be a bitch back, it just sits there. Like it is listening to everything as the water rippled from fish and wind, and Chloe sang to it. Reason number one that she did that; because the music room was full. Reason number two; her roomies would probably scream. Reason number three; the day was awesome.

Putting her phone on loud with a youtube instrumental of 'My life would suck without you' by Kelly Clarkson was on loud and she was at the chorus. She was far from others and felt like she was alone. Belting out the lyrics, going out of control like a friggin tornado she let the words become her. Her eye clutched closed, feeling the beat but then opening her eyes she looked. Her subconscious is a tricky thing, because rocks and bolders by the shore we levitated into the air. That totally destroyed her buzz and she then sighed as she lowered her hands and the rocks landed smoothly. Not without feeling like someone shot through her temple with a gun as she then rubbed her left temple. Telekinesis sucked balls!

Pulling out a sheet of pills, she then popped two out and swallowed them quick. Painkillers; her life savers. But then she heard some kids talking, and noticed one of the voices as Izzy. Izzy was a good guy, a bit quirky but that is the price you pay by controlling time. She smiled slightly and walked around some rocks and saw Izzy and some red-headed kid. Approaching, she sat on a rock behind them as they spoke about powers. Looking to Izzy, she smiled. "Hey loser! What are you guys doing?".

She spoke friendly and looking to the other kid, she grinned. "I'm Chloe, howdy!".

[Izzy James]

Lots of words. Because apparently Chris's speed also applied to his ability to talk. Which probably wouldn't be a problem for most people, but Izzy had this wonderful knack of completely losing his place in a conversation, particularly as it got longer. So out of the whole spiel, Izzy caught about half, maybe, and only about two thirds of that was actually translatable to his poor, fried brain.

"Err, I can stop it, sort of," tried Izzy. Partially true. He could speed up himself in time and slow down the rest of the world. Not that he'd ever really managed to pull it off at will, but, yeah, it was pretty much stopping time. Plus, he was pretty sure that he could do more with more training. Which is why he'd arrived here. He just hadn't been here long enough to make a difference yet.

A new arrival, one yelling at Izzy. The poor guy hadn't even been there a week yet, and when he turned to look at this new girl, he wound up mostly blinking, and figuring out if he'd just missed a part of the conversation again.

"Uh, hi, Chloe. I'm Izzy, that's,' he pointed at Chris, then ended up bobbing his finger stupidly, "uh, crap, did you say your name?"

And he hadn't even had his power backfire in the conversation yet.

[Chris Carpenter]

It occurred to Chris as he spoke that Izzy wasn't really getting what he was saying. He did say he had trouble following conversations, didn't he? Yeah, something like that, anyways. For a moment...just one moment, really...Chris felt a little bad about running away with the conversation. But then, that really was just how he was. He decided to make a conscious effort to speak more slowly when Izzy was around, and not talk quite so much.

He wouldn't apologize, though. It was, as he saw it, a guy thing.

At that point, he heard loud music from nearby and all the fish that had been hovering around swam away at the loud noise. He turned and saw an older girl sitting by the side of the lake and gave her a slight wave of acknowledgement. He raised an eyebrow at her somewhat curious greeting, but continued his conversation with Izzy. "It's still a pretty awesome power," he said with a grin. "Bet you can do some cool stuff when you get more used to it."

Then he responded to the girl. "Hey...I'm Chris, nice to meet you." He wasn't sure what she was doing out here, singing in the middle of nowhere, but hey, it was someone he didn't know and that was cause for interest. He'd already met so many interesting people around here.