Stranger things [Greg]

[Deidra McKay]

By now Deidra was quite used to strange things happening around Hammel. So whenever something came up, she shrugged and told herself stranger things had happened. Somewhere, someplace. Besides, she liked strange and unexpecting things. Why not? She was both of those things in a nutshell. So it applied to her very well. The top-hatted girl was dressed almost normal today, a simple black shirt and jeans. Earrings, bracelet, necklace, favorite shoes. Check, check, check and check.

The courtyard was a place of solitude today, a place she most definitely owned with her illusions. She practiced all the time, and only got better and better with each time. Soon she'd be able to master illusions that could fool all five senses, instead of just a combination of two, and sometimes three. Right now butterflies galumphed through the air shedding gold sparkles as they went. The smell of fresh rain was pleasantly strong, even thought it hadn't rained in a few days. The icing though, on this proverbial cake was the sound of soft music playing, just the barest thread.

To Deidra, her power was the best in the world.

So when she heard the tell-tale sound of footsteps coming closer, she just hid herself, like a chameleon, using her illusions to make her look like what was around her. She could still be walked into of course, but the likely-hood of that was negligible. Hopefully. She wanted to share her wonderful illusions with everyone! And as long as no one ran into her she would do just fine.

[Gregory Strickland]

Greg needed to see Sean, it was really rather simple. He wanted to ask his best friend how the new suit he was wearing looked. Was it too much for someone about to potentially get a job? Was he worrying too much? Had he been out of the workforce for too long? So he needed some fashion advice. That, and he was curious to see where Sean worked. He’d never been to a meta school before, and was pretty disappointed that teenagers weren’t flying around, or glowing different colors. There weren’t a lot of kids at all actually. Perhaps that had something to do with exams?

Stepping towards the front doors, Greg heard soft music. He blinked a couple times, making sure it wasn’t just him. He sidestepped the door and went around the building instead, to what appeared to be a courtyard. The sight before him made him smile broadly. Now this is what he had been expecting/hoping for. Soft music, sparkly insects. He approached them steadily, and when they didn’t fly away, he knew it was someone playing tricks.

“Lovely power you have, wherever you are,” he said, his eyes scanning the bench, and then the tree line. He shrugged. Maybe the person was just shy.

[Deidra McKay]

She grinned and giggled a little. She couldn't help herself, bursting into giggles. The control over hiding where she was disappeared, and she seemed to sort of just meld into existence from nowhere. Her olivine eye glittered with mirth, not an uncommon state for the girl who was almost always happy. You know what they say about strangers right? If you don't know them then it's time to introduce yourself. [Or something along those lines. She was never quite sure of that rule anyway.] The gold and scarlet butterfly looped upside down, moving in ways that butterflies wouldn't really move. A few seemed to grow bigger, fluttering over to him. Deidra skip-hopped her way after them, grinning like a man hatter [of which it was a distinct possibility she was one such kind of person]

" Oooh, thank you! I'm Deidra!" She said, holding out her hand palm up, her way of saying hi.
" I don't think I know you, at least, I've not seen you around the school. Are you a new teacher here?" Her accent was very light, but happy. She really liked meeting new people. Plus, her endless energy just sometimes made her such a an interesting person to be around. And that was when she was acting almost normal. Which was pretty much never.

[Gregory Strickland]

Greg looked around, glad to finally see a little girl appear. She seemed happy enough. So much so, that her happiness was rubbing off on him. It was nice to know he wasn’t going crazy, but hey, he was at a meta school after all. Greg let a few of the butterflies land on him, pretending not to notice the girl until she wanted to be noticed. When she did finally skip towards him, Greg was absolutely beaming.

“Well hello Deidra, I’m Greg.” He stared at her upturned hand, and since he wasn’t sure what else to do but didn’t want to be impolite, he gave the hand a high five. Kids these days, you never knew what was cool anymore. He laughed and shook his head no. “I’m actually looking for someone,” his gaze went back to the school. “Speaking of which, maybe you know where Sean... I mean, Doctor Neville’s office is? I’m a friend of his.” Greg sort of didn’t want to go just yet, even if that meant his suit would be dirty by the time he saw Sean.

[Deidra McKay]

A nice name, Greg. He high fived her, which wasn't really what she was expecting, but oh ell. That was fine too. The littler butterflies landed on him, a few of them anyway, just sort of moving their wings. She let the music sounds fade away leaving only the sight of the glowing butterflies of all different sizes. That was plenty enough for the moment. She should have been practicing touch sense illusions, but that would be creepy on people she didn't know, so she didn't.

" Dr. Neville? He's probably up in his office. Not sure, as I've not gone round to see him today. Actually, I haven't for a bit, but that's okay. I'm sure he's wonderfully chipper as always!" She didn't quite realize she was rambling a bit, but it didn't matter to the illusionist. She skipped a little circle, before settling her eyes back on Greg with a most likely unsettling intensity. It wasn't malicious, or angry, or even negative. No, it was just curiosity. The girl couldn't really help that when she did decide to really look at people it was quite a strong bit of scrutiny.

" So have you known Dr. Neville a long time?" Grown up seemed to be like that, knowing each other for ages and ages. Deidra didn't think about the fact that Greg might not really be willing to answer that, because those things never occurred to her. She usually ran on a policy of answer truth with truth, and lied only when it was absolutely necessary. As such, she took most people's words at face value as truth. It was a little naive of her, but she didn't really know better.

[Gregory Strickland]

Greg smiled and laughed. It was nice to see the young ones taking a liking to Sean. “I see, and I’m sure you’re right.” Still, that didn’t really help him find Dr. Neville’s office. It was his fault for not being clear enough. This girl was peculiar but all around fun, so Greg didn’t mind the staring, not at all.

“A really long time actually. I’m here to ask him something important,” he said, glancing at the butterflies dancing around his shoulders. He looked at her with his head tilted to the side. “Was that music yours? Because I swear there was music playing just moments ago,” he said. He assumed the butterflies were hers, but, what about the rest? Hers was a strange power indeed.

[Deidra McKay]

" Oooh, yes! Multi-sensory illusions. They can sometimes be hard to maintain. I'm still rubbish at all five senses, but that's fine. Still have a good bit of time left in Hammel. And probably after that too!" It was interesting to her that he knew Dr. Neville. As a friend. Sure, a good number of teachers an people were friends with each other, but he said they'd known each other a really long time.

" Important, gotcha! Oh wait, you don't know where his office is!" She face-palmed, and the butterflies seemed to melt away where they were. Of course! He wouldn't probably know his way around. Well, maybe if he were a meta, but for some reason she thought not. He didn't strike her as meta-ish. Not that she was all that good at telling anyway.

" Come on! I'll take you to his office. It's actually not too far away.'' The offices were on the first floor, and were pretty each to get to most of the time. Well, unless someone was planning tricks or whatnot. Then it got pretty impossible. Deidra was pretty sure that all the tricksters were focused on bigger, more outdoor tricks anyway.

[Gregory Strickland]

“Multi sensory illusions?” He asked, a finger to his chin. Well, that certainly was interesting, and something he hadn’t heard of before. Greg smiled at her. “Well you’re doing a pretty good job so far, I’m sure things will only get better.” That was Greg for you, always on the up and up when he wanted to be.

“Great!” He said, ready to follow her wherever she lead him. She seemed like a trustworthy girl, and if she ended up not being so, then he could always try and find his own way around. His blue eyes scanned over the grounds again, catching the Gerbera Daisies Addie had told him about. She really was good at what she did.

“So what other illusions can you do?” He asked, keeping his stride in line with hers.

[Deidra McKay]

“mhmm, yes. I haven’t quite mastered all five senses, but I can perfectly do upto two at a time, three well. Four is a bit of a stretch at the moment, but I’ve been working on it.” She replied , turning another corner and trying to get her way to the offices. It wasn’t a particularly long walk, but sometimes she got a little bit mixed up.

“ Umm, pretty much anything really. I mean, things I’ve seen or felt or such things yeah? I can try and do things I’ve heard other people describe, but it’s not the same and I really need a lot of description to do it. And it looks more like however I would imagine things and not how they would really. So…yeah.” The girl just shrugged. The only exceptions to that rule were those people with mental powers who could share images or senses with her, and she loved those kinds of people. So many NEW things she could learn and share!

[Gregory Strickland]

Greg smiled, always interested in learning about powers even though he wasn’t meta. “Well you’re young, and you do them so well already. I’m sure you’ll just get better and better.” He knew he was speaking to a teenager, but still, he couldn’t help the babying voice. These kids needed to know that they were doing just fine. Especially when they had heap loads of other drama to worry about.

“So are there a lot of different powers here? Or just a lot of people with the same one?” Okay, he was playing dumb now, but he had to find something to talk about on the way to visit Sean.

[Deidra McKay]

The positive encouragement made her beam as she skipped her way along, looking for that familiar office door. It had to be there somewhere right? Or did she get all mixed up again? No, there it was! She was kind of sad to see it as it meant their conversation was going to be coming to a close. But oh well, she had made a new friend, and that was what mattered right?

" Well, as far as I know most people have different powers. I mean, you get people who are, uh, I guess classified as having the same power, but I think it works differently for everyone. I don't know if there are any other illusionists currently here. Although I'm sure I could ask." She actually thought maybe she should, as they would be good people to practice her power with. As they neared the door to Dr. Neville's office Deidra slowed.

" Well, here ya go! I hope you have fun talking to Dr. Neville. Tell him I said hi."