Second Impressions (Izzy)

[Jordan Scholl]

Jordan hadn't been talking much to his roommates after the debate over Trouble. Not, of course, that he'd been talking to them much before that either. But he'd gotten the distinct impression that some of his roommates weren't exactly happy with him after that whole debate, since he'd been the most resistant to the idea of having a dog kept illegally on campus.

So once again he was sneaking into his bedroom. He dumped off his bag and grabbed his guitar, planning to head outside and practice in the courtyard. He didn't like to play in his room much, since the walls weren't the best and he didn't want to bother anyone with his practicing. He hadn't been practicing his guitar as much as he should have been, as a result, and had gotten a bit rusty. Today he hoped to just go over his old songs again and try to get back into the swing of things.

He left his room, guitar case in hand, and was on his way out of the suite, hoping only that no one would see him leaving.

[Izzy James]

This was weird. Because Izzy was carrying his own guitar, in its battered case, and was thinking about heading outside to practice. So looking at Jordan was like looking at a mirror. Except in Izzy's mind, that mirror was displaying someone he'd already mentally labeled 'Srgt. Stick-in-the-Mud, hater of dogs and all things loosely related to fun."

Except the good sergeant was currently holding a guitar.

"You play?" said Izzy. Except the last word nearly went up an octave, and there was definitely an aura of "where's the cameras?" embedded in the statement. Izzy was half tempted to start looking now. Instead he shifted, adjusting his grip on his own guitar.

"Unless that's a gun. That happened in a movie once, didn't it?"

Because, somehow, Jordan carrying a gun was far more believable to Izzy than the idea of Jordan carrying a guitar.

[Jordan Scholl]

It might have been expected, really. Especially with the way that Izzy had been with his music collection. Jordan really should've guessed that he played an instrument. Yet somehow he was still surprised.

More than being surprised, though, he was offended at the shock in his roommate's statement. He frowned, eyebrows furrowing as he looked down at the beat-up case that Izzy was holding. It looked like this guy played a lot, which meant he was probably pretty good. And might be able to give Jordan a few tips, if he could hold his temper in check.

"You're right on both counts," he said before he could stop himself. "It's a guitar and a gun. See, I specially converted it so that I could keep a blow gun in the end. That way I can stay undercover as a street player and still be a secret agent. I'm a spy, you know." He said all this with almost-sincerity. Because he was a bit of a spy, even if he didn't have a cool gun/guitar.

"So you play, too? How long have you been practicing? I only got mine a few years ago, and I haven't gotten really good at it or anything." Jordan shrugged. "It's just kind of a hobby, I guess. But I like music, and I figured this was better than trying to play saxophone or something."

[Izzy James]

For a moment, Izzy had that awkward time when he couldn't quite figure out if Jordan was being serious or pulling his leg. This resulted in some strange looks, some shifting on Izzy's part, and generally looking at the guitar as if it were about to attack at any moment. Eventually, Izzy caught on, grinning nearly from ear to ear as he nodded.

"That's cool. When I asked my dad to put something like that in, he just sorta laughed me off," said Izzy. He chuckled, hefting the guitar. "This thing's probably too old to do anything really major to anyway. It would destroy it or something."

Nodding. They both played, obviously, duh. Like that hadn't been obvious and stuff. Izzy was even willing to believe Jordan a spy at this point. That would certainly explain the whole "stick-in-the-mud" bit. If you were spying, you probably didn't want people investigating your room looking for reasons to expel you. Maybe a bit gullible, but Izzy was willing to go with whatever until proven otherwise.

"I've been practicing for a while. My parents bought me this a few years back, but I'd been getting lessons and stuff before that," explained Izzy. "They were stoked that I was getting into music, especially since I keep playing what they like to listen too."

Izzy laughed. He knew that his music tastes were dated, what with the collection of music older than most of the faculty members at Hammel, but it was just one in a long list of things that Izzy didn't really care about.

"You totally should have gone for the sax though," Izzy said. "They get all the babes."

A pause, Izzy looked to the guitar, then to the player. "What kind of music you play anyway?"

[Jordan Scholl]

"Some sort of antique, huh?" Jordan asked, gesturing at it with his chin. Maybe it had been passed down through the family, or something. "I got mine as a present, new. Still kind of trying to test it out."

But if it had been specially bought, that would mean it wasn't an heirloom or anything. Too bad.

"That's pretty cool. I never really got a lot of formal lessons or anything. Mostly it was just me teaching myself. I was going to start lessons once I got the guitar, but then I had to come here. So, yeah." He shrugged. "That plan didn't work out."

Curious, though, he had to ask, "So what type of music do you play, then?"

Jordan made a bit of a face. "Yeah, so? Who needs girls? Besides, guitar is easier, and you don't need back-up or anything." And who ever saw a saxophone player who didn't look suspicious? Exactly. Guitar players faded into the background, but everyone watched out for saxes.

"I mostly play country stuff," Jordan admitted somewhat shyly. "But I'm not real good or anything. I'm just listening to country and kind of picking out some of the sounds. And I know a few other songs, like 'American Pie.' I don't practice much, so I'm not really good."

And that was about as blatant a request for help as was likely to come out of his mouth. Though he didn't necessarily like to admit it, Jordan was a bit too proud for his own good.

[Izzy James]

Izzy chuckled. "Secondhand, actually. That way my parents could actually afford it. Besides, instruments have to have history, you know? New ones just aren't the same."

Though it sounded as though Jordan's was brand spanking new, more or less. Also cool that Jordan had taught himself; Izzy found himself nodding slowly, respectfully toward that. He'd always figured he had something of a knack for music, and most of his teachers had said so, but he hadn't been brave enough to try and develop that on his own.

"Mostly old stuff," said Izzy. "You know, classics. Beatles, Paul Simon, the Monkees, some Pink Floyd if I'm in the mood. Lots of acoustic stuff," he caught Jordan's admission and smiling slightly, "some country too. Mostly newer country stuff. Their lyrics kinda sound the same, but the playing's fun. Plus Keith Urban isn't so bad."

Another shrug. Izzy would admit to mostly learning some things in order to impress the females, Keith Urban being right there near the top. Though Jordan seemed more intent on just playing music for music's sake. Wait, was that a hint or something? Izzy wasn't quite sure, especially considering his horrible tendency to miss great chunks of the conversation.

"I could show you some stuff. Or we could just play together or something," Izzy grinned, "everybody knows a few lines to American Pie. I even know some of the words, believe it or not."

[Jordan Scholl]

"Yeah, I guess..." Jordan said, shuffling his feet a bit. Did he feel bad for having a new instrument? Maybe. But didn't that just mean he would have the chance to give it history, so he'd actually know the stories behind all the scratches?

"Keith Urban, yeah," Jordan said nodding, "but also some of the older stuff. I like Johnny Cash--he had a really distinctive sound, but it was good. I like listening to the older music more, but I can't play it or anything. I'm not really good." He put his head down and scuffed a foot on the floor, then looked up again.

"Really? That would be great!" he said, brightening again. He was even smiling, which was not usually uncommon but had become more and more infrequent as he slowly grew to believe that most of his roommates at least disliked if not hated him. But now things were starting to look up again, at least a little.

"We don't have to play American Pie. I don't even know all the words to it, just the tune. But maybe you could show me some of the stuff you know...? I mean, if that's okay or whatever."

He awkwardly passed his guitar from side to side. "Sorry about Trouble, by the way. And me not wanting him to stay. It's just...I've got family here, and I don't want to let anyone down by getting in trouble or anything."

[Izzy James]

"The man in black? He's awesome," agreed Izzy, his grin widening. If you didn't like Johnny Cash, then there was probably something seriously wrong with you. Especially if you happened to be obsessed with music, doubly so, if, like Izzy, you were obsessed with good classic music. Listening, but couldn't play; sounded like Jordan was still brushing up on his musical skills. It made Izzy want to help, though he wasn't sure how much he could teach.

His brain pulled one of those crappy tricks on him, skipping over a section of the conversation, so Izzy missed whether or not Jordan was up for playing, and the whole bit about "American Pie." His brain caught up around the whole Trouble point, and that had him blinking. Subject change much?

"Yeah, that was kind of, uh," stick in the muddish? Was there a word for that? "Weird. But I guess it makes sense or something," Izzy shrugged. He still didn't quite get it, and he had a feeling his family would be more of a mind for him sticking up to his friend over following the rules. But the Jameses weren't the Scholls.

"So, hey, did you want to play together or something? I know some stuff from 'American Pie' and could even sing a few lines. Or pretty well anything by Cash."

Izzy moved his guitar over to a nearby chair, unlatching it to get ready. If he noticed that he'd just repeated something he'd said only a few minutes ago, it didn't show. He looked more focused on pulling out his instrument, till the guitar was showing. Then he looked over to Jordan, clearly expecting an answer.

[Jordan Scholl]

Izzy didn't seem entirely convinced by Jordan's apology about Trouble. He tried to explain better. "See, it's not like I don't like dogs or anything! I do like dogs. I have a dog. But Uncle Chase is really scary when he's mad at you, and I don't like doing anything that will make him mad." He shuddered involuntarily and may have gone fuzzy around the edges for a moment as he remembered some of the other more terrifying people at Hammel.

He cocked his head to one side when Izzy asked the same question again, or nearly the same question. "Sure, I guess..." he said, walking over to where Izzy was setting up. "I don't usually play inside, but that's fine. And if you have any new stuff to teach that would be cool too..." But finally he couldn't keep his curiosity in check any longer. "I'm sorry, but didn't you just ask me that? Do you have short-term memory loss or something?"

He had briefly forgotten that not everyone was the same as him, and thus had different difficulties with their powers. He didn't even know what Izzy's power was, come to think of it. Jordan sat down on the couch and pulled out his guitar, then looked over at his roommate.

"So...um. What other hobbies do you have? I mean, if we're going to be living together maybe we should know each other a little better. Rhett I know--he's a jerk who likes showing up other people. And AJ's the noisy one who jumps around a lot. I'm just kind of invisible. What about you?"

[Izzy James]

Izzy listened carefully as Jordan explained, actually getting in the whole conversation, even nodding along to it. It seemed like Jordan really, really wanted Izzy to like him, or something. That alone made Izzy kind of feel sorry for the way he’d initially judged the kid, and he could almost hear his pastor back home berating him for the behavior. Erg, and if the pastor was bad, Izzy didn’t want to think about what his mom would say.

“It’s cool,” he said, waving a hand. “Seriously. I get what it’s like to be worried about a parent or whatnot. Just be thankful your Uncle Chase doesn’t have the teachers or the local pastor breathing down your neck.”

More tuning of the guitar, while Izzy lent half an ear to what Jordan was saying. Not so much inside, which Izzy had to nod along with. His brain did another little skippy thing, so he didn’t catch anything till “short-term memory loss.” Izzy guessed the rest had something to do with how he’d said something that he’d already said or something. Frowning, Izzy ran his hand over the guitar’s strings.

“It’s my power,” he explained. He laughed, shaking his head. “I mean, I don’t have the power to be a complete dork or forget stuff. My brain shuts off for a little burst of time or something, you know? Or it rewinds. That’s always fun. I think it has something to do with the fact that I can alter time and stuff. I don’t know. I just know that it makes me a pain to talk to sometimes.”

Izzy ran his hand along the guitar string, pulling music out of it. Not quite in tuned. More tweaking to get it there, while Izzy answered the questions. “Music’s a lot of it, actually. You probably saw the album collection, right? Or, well, what’s left of it. I also sing and play. Worked on song writing,” he shrugged, then winced. “Ugh, I sound like a tool. I play video games too. Or I did. The time wobbly stuff makes that a pain. Hang out. Check out girls. You know, the usual stuff.”

Another shrug, another playing of notes. This time, Izzy was satisfied with the noise, and let his fingers start absently playing a tune while he talked. “What about you? Besides, you know, chasing off dogs and learning guitar. What do you do?”

[Jordan Scholl]

"Not yet he doesn't," Jordan breathed into his collar. It would never do to underestimate his uncle. But the good news was that Izzy didn't seem to hate him or anything. Which was a good step. Someday Jordan might even be able to make a real friend on campus, too.

Jordan looked over at his roommate, confused a bit about the explanation of his power. "So...you like, can do the whole time warp thing? And it makes your brain skip around?" he asked. "That sucks. I just get really tired and have headaches and stuff. And my clothes start to fall apart. And sometimes I disappear when I'm not trying, but I don't think that's a side effect or anything, just me not knowing what to do." He was still trying to wrap his head around the whole time thing, though, and he was hoping to try to understand more as he went along.

Overall, Izzy sounded like a pretty average guy. The whole "checking out girls" thing was something Jordan had heard from some of the older kids but wasn't really interested in himself. But everything else seemed pretty similar.

He ignored the comment about chasing off dogs, hoping that if he didn't mention it then everyone else would sort of...forget. "I play soccer. And I like reading and stuff. Mostly science fiction. I kind of play video games, but not really all the time. And I'm a spy." He said this last one with pride, straightening a bit in his seat. "But you're not really supposed to tell anyone," he suddenly said, leaning forward. "Because no one's really supposed to know. I just like finding things out. I know a lot about the school."

[Izzy James]

Izzy nodded. "Tell me about it. I'm hoping to get some training and stuff, which should help. I mean, I doubt that everyone who does the time thing has as much trouble as I do."

Izzy suspected that his more recent difficulties regarding his powers had to deal with the stress he'd experienced upon moving in to the new school and adjusting. Mostly it had to do with his panic over the near death experience he'd had with Adrianna just shortly after arriving. He didn't want to think about that though, and was more than glad to continue the conversation with Jordan instead.

"The clothes thing sounds like a neat party trick," said Izzy. He chuckled and plucked at his guitar, punctuating his joke with an odd note. Soon enough the fingers were moving again, though Izzy frowned as he heard some sour notes. Man, did he need to work at this.

Soccer. Reading. Izzy never really got into either, though he'd had siblings that were interested in both, so he could nod along there. It was the last that actually got his fingers to slip on the strings.

"Uh, did you just say spy or something?" said Izzy. He brought a finger up to clean out his ear. "Because that seems kind of odd, so I'm hoping that's my brain playing tricks on me again."

[Jordan Scholl]

"Well, I don't know. Every person is different. Some people never really get over their side effects, they just learn to deal with them," Jordan said thoughtfully. From what he'd seen of the adult metahumans around and the older kids, training didn't seem to be a thing that ever stopped.

He frowned at the idea of trying to wear out his clothes. "Why would that be a good trick? It's really annoying, it just means I have to keep buying new clothes." He watched Izzy play with slight envy. He was nowhere near that comfortable with the guitar yet.

Trying to follow the older guy's example, Jordan plucked out a few notes on his own guitar. He was better at chords, though, and he soon resorted to just strumming a few simple chords in no particular order.

I'm hoping that's my brain playing tricks on me again, Izzy said, apparently stunned. Jordan looked up at him, eyes wide with surprise. Was it a bad thing that he was a spy? Why was Izzy hoping he was not a spy? But he hid his confusion and only hesitated a few moments before responding.

"No, I never said that. Maybe you time warped to when I was joking about my guitar?" And he looked back down at his own guitar to hide the fact that he was biting his lip, a nervous habit he had every time he lied. "Hey, what sort of music do you usually play? Can you show me?" He looked back up with a smile, hoping that his apparent slip-up might have been forgotten.

[Izzy James]

{sorry about the delayed response.}

Every person was different? Some never got over their side effects? that bummed Izzy out, though he was still hoping that he could at least get over the harsher of his problems. Most students didn't have to deal with temporal displacement, plus nausea, plus conversation issues. Even the other ones with Izzy's power. Then again, it seemed, at least to Izzy anyway, that his power had a lot of charge.

There was music and disappearing clothes to discuss though. "I mean, it would be kinda cool, you know? You could make your shirt disappear or something. It comes back eventually, doesn't it? Seems like disappearing clothes would be a neat trick is all."

Izzy shrugged. He hadn't exactly thought the whole thing out yet. Thinking about other peoples' powers usually just bummed him out. Often seemed like everyone else got a more awesome power, or at least a power that could be better balanced than his. Or maybe he was just moping, bemoaning his fate of "being cursed with awesome" or something.

Again: music to play.

"All kinds of stuff," Izzy said. Not a very clear answer, he knew. "I mean, I play a lot of acoustic stuff. Uh, older stuff, mostly. Beatles, Paul Simon, some Monkees, some Partridge Family when I'm really bored. I know some of those country pretty boy stuff too."

Izzy wrinkled his brow. Hadn't he said this sort of thing before? it seemed familiar, but then again, his conversations often looped. He'd apparently looped and misheard something Jordan said already, so what was stopping that from happening now?

"But yeah, I can show you," he said. His fingers starting picking out a tune, and soon enough, Izzy was singing along:

"
What would you think if I sang out of tune?
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key "

He let his fingers play for a bit, grinning. "You know, stuff like that."

He hummed and picked it up again, letting his fingers stroll.

[Jordan Scholl]

[OOC: Ditto.]

"No, it doesn't work like that," Jordan tried to explain. He spread his hands. "It's not like I can make just my clothes disappear. It's that, like, when I disappear, it's because I'm moving really fast. Like a hummingbird. And clothes aren't made for that, so they all wear out." That was the clearest description he'd been able to put together of his power, which was strange even to him. If he had to be invisible, couldn't it just be the normal time, where you suddenly go all camouflagey? But no, he had to do the whole stupid vibration bit...

Izzy was repeating some of his words. But Jordan figured that was still part of his whole power thing, so he chose not to comment on it. It wasn't that hard to get used to, really, or even that annoying yet. Not like the guy was a broken record--the conversation was still moving forward.

"Okay, well, I'll just try to follow along," he said quietly as Izzy picked up the guitar. He watched carefully as the guy's fingers moved over the strings. Unpacking his own instrument, he tried to copy some of the fingerings, his face scrunched in concentration and slight bewilderment.

His guitar wasn't exactly in tune, so he had to do some minor adjustments as he went, but he listened to what Izzy was playing and tried to come up with something that might work with it. Hesitantly he played a chord and let it die out while the older musician played above.

"What key is this supposed to be?" he said, looking between his own guitar and Izzy's. "I can't quite...there." He finally played a chord that sounded in tune with everything else. "I've never really practiced with anyone," he said. "Sorry if it sounds like crap."