Crinkled Irony (open)

[Jeffrey Dougal]

Waking up in the middle of the night wasn't something Jeff was used to--after feeling like he got thrown back to reality (he had been skeeing in the mountains with his parents and two random unknown people when a snowball the size of a tire dislodged him from his skees)--and somehow being on the floor. He decided instantly he didn't like it.

After dislodging his boxer clad legs from his comforter, he pulled himself up to his feet and in a ball, tossed the stupid blanket onto the bed. He rubbed his head as his tired eyes sought out the clock and affirmed that it was actually one in the morning. Durn.

With a grunt, and a scratch at his bare stomach he realized the gnawing pain there. "Go away," he mumbled at the hunger. It didn't.

He shuffled around his bed, careful to avoid the metal legs, and reached towards his underwear drawer to get his stash of cheeze-its. After a moment of rummaging, he withdrew the orange box and with a shake, his smile fell. Empty.

His head turned towards the general direction of his roommates. No way he told them about HIS stash. He clenched his jaw as he pulled a pair of basket ball shorts on and slipped into his flip flops. The vending machine was calling his name downstairs. He picked his wallet up from the floor (out of his pants pocket) and shuffled his way out of his room, through the shared area, and into the hallway. He wasn't so worried about waking anyone up with his noise because it was so late/early in the morning, everyone was out.

After reaching the ground floor, he turned his attention to the glowing and faintly buzzing machines. After taking out a crispy and crinkled dollar bill--sadly the only one he had in his wallet (that previous afternoon was spent at the mall replacing his poor headphones). After he tried to flatten it out on the corner of the machine he pushed the dollar into the slot. The lights flashed green and the dollar was pulled inside the machine. After a moment however, the dollar was spat back out.

After three more attempts--he tried rotating, flipping, and more flattening--the machine still refused to accept his dollar. He let out a sad moan and let his forehead smack against the glass as he stared at the bag of cheeze-its. So close, but so far away.

[Juniper Birdsong]

It was a Friday night, and since Juniper didn't have school the next day, she told herself it was alright that she was staying up far past her normal sleeping time in order to finish a project she was working on. It was a new shirt she was trying to sew, and no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't get the fabric together right. After about a half-dozen tries on the same area, she let out a breath and sat back, needing a break.

Even though she wasn't in bed, she was dressed for it - a light green, polka-dotted tanktop and matching shorts, since it was still rather warm outside. The top even had to little bows on the straps that she had glued on herself. Her hair was au natural at the moment, falling around her face in slightly frizzy curls. Not her best look, but she didn't plan on having anyone see her this way, and so she hadn't bothered to do anything with it.

But then her stomach decided to growl, and Juniper realized she had a slight problem. She didn't have any food in her room. And she knew she would never be able to sleep on an empty stomach. Deciding she needed to get up and take a break anyway, she stood, stretched, grabbed a dollar, and tip-toed out of her room, past the common area, and headed downstairs.

She hadn't expected anyone else to be up at this hour, but she supposed it wasn't too surprising when she saw someone at the vending machine already, since there were so many students in the building. Being always the friendly one, she half-skipped over to the figure (as always, she was incapable of simply walking), bringing a slight breeze with her as she tried to make out who it was. When she got close enough to recognize him, she smiled. "Hey there, Jeff, right?" She stopped when she realized his forehead was pressed firmly against the glass of the vending machine. "Um. Is everything alright?" Her stomach gurgled again, and she wrapped both of her arms around it, biting her lip. "Is it not working? I'm starving." She didn't know Jeff too well, but they had a couple classes together, and he was cute enough for her to have taken notice of him before. It was then that she realized he didn't have a shirt on, and she felt a slight blush rise to her cheeks. Sure, she had seen shirtless guys before (and she and Amos changed around each other all the time, but that was different), but it was always sort of a jolt when it was unexpected. Like at 1 am in the morning, while she was trying to find some food.

[Jeffrey Dougal]

With his head against the glass, his breath fogged the pane momentairly obscuring his target from his view. He nudged the machine with his foot, but that wasn't going to get him anywhere. He was almost just about to accept defeat when he heard the sound of approach--albeit the sound itself was weird...loping almost. Like the person wasn't walking, but....skipping?

His head turned slowly as a gust of wind--brought on by the advancing person--brought goose bumps to his flesh. His naked flesh. He blinked down at himself. Wow, good one Jeff. Oh gosh, she was pretty. Her pajamas weren't scanty but...Jeff cleared his throat and gripped his dollar--now freshly crinkled--into his palm. "Uh, I was...dollar...not..." He gestured towards the machine. He had no idea if the machine didn't take dollars--the lights were green however--or if the machine didn't take his dollar because that was just how the world worked for Jeff.

The stuttering....greaaaat. Of course he was flustered about this pretty girl coming out of no where at one in the morning, but odder yet, she knew his name. He recognized her now, thanks to the cold glow of the vending machine lights, as the girl in a few of his classes. The skipping was more explained now, as he recalled seeing her enter classrooms that way. The name? Fff, he couldn't remember. He rubbed the back of his neck, again his eyes fell to his lack of clothes and her...well lack of casual clothes.

Not even remembering to make sure his mental shields where up he glanced back up at her, a bit of a flushed color tinting his face now. "Will not take my dollar." Jeff was in no way going to win an award for public speaking. Ever.

[Juniper Birdsong]

Juniper blinked, feeling bad that he seemed so flustered. Had she done something wrong? Well, most people probably weren't used to someone approaching them so early in the morning in less than casual clothing, so she put it aside as surprise on his part. Although she did get a wave of thought that wasn't her own, something about her pajamas... Her blush deepened a little, but she didn't take offense to it. However, her arms rose from her stomach to wrap around her chest, although there really wasn't much there to cover anyway. Still, she hoped it might calm him down at least a little. She hated making people feel uncomfortable. "Juniper," she said, smiling gently. "We have science and math together." She thought she should offer her name, since he seemed not to know.

Her attention turned back to the vending machine, although her gaze did brush over his very naked torso on the way there. "It's not taking your money?" she repeated, frowning. "Hm. Well, mind if I try?" She took a few steps closer, taking out her dollar and attempting to stick it into the slot. It went it, and after a few seconds when it didn't reappear, she shrugged. "I guess I'm just lucky," she said, almost sheepishly. "What was it that you wanted to get?" He was here first, so he should be able to get whatever he wanted first. Even if his dollar didn't work, she could just run upstairs to get another for herself. Now that she had a job, she felt a bit less concerned about helping other people out money-wise. And this was only a dollar, after all. If she made a new friend out of the process, it would be totally worth it!

[Jeffrey Dougal]

Her self conscious movement of her arms over her chest made him slant his eyes to the far wall. Too early to be in control. He was frazzled, his half hair-gelled mop was sticking up in every possible direction--totally not the clean and professional air he usually had. Not to mention the basketball shorts with the top in of boxer showing, and no shirt on--that just wasn't Jeff. He flattened his hair a little, in an attempt to distract his brain enough off of her to get his boundaries up, so he didn't focus on how much of her thighs he could see, for instance, or how the straps of her pajama top were thin and he could see lots of bare skin there, which glowed in the light.

Totally not helping.

He nodded his head a little when she clarified her name, he was remembering a plant name. "Nice to meet you....my name is Jeff, like you said." He smiled a little but that smile soon turned into a cringe when he thought about how lame he sounded. He sounded lame. He just did. When she repeated him about the machine he nodded. It seemed like too much of a scientific technique, that he hadn't gotten a handle on. When she started to move towards the money slot, he backed out of her way, of course the movement brought her smell wafting into his senses.

She smelled good. Like a girl, but not like the perfume-girl. Just girl. It was a good smell. Probably her shampoo. He hair was kinda frizzy--not like she was sleeping, but like she was up doing something and kept putting a hand to her head every now and then--or something like that. Jeff looked at the machine with almost a look of betrayal as it took her dollar. Way to further his image of being stupid. He passed it off however with a laugh. "It must like you."

He didn't just say that. He couldn't have. He did not just say that.

His astonishment showed on his face briefly, and then she asked what he had been getting. His stomach controlled his eyes to look at the orange and red bag but he didn't say anything. "Ladies first." He wasn't about to take her money to get a snack, no matter how his hunger felt like it was slowly imploding his stomach. "I can go and get another dollar." He held up his sorry excuse for money and tried a confident smile.

[Juniper Birdsong]

As Jeff ran a hand throw his air, Juniper got a few more waves of thought from him - how much of legs were showing, and how much skin around her chest was glowing in the faint light. A bubble of laughter erupted from her; for some reason, she found it funny. She also felt bad; the poor boy couldn't think about anything without worrying about other people hearing it. And she couldn't blame him for what he was thinking - it was what any other teenage boy would think about, only they didn't have to worry about anyone hearing their thoughts.

"Yes, it's a pleasure to finally meet you, Jeff. I'm sorry we haven't talked before - you seem very nice." She gave him a smile as she approached the machine. She couldn't help but think how absolutely adorable he was. A little quirky and awkward, but that just added to the effect. At that moment she caught another thought from him - what she smelled like? Well, at least she didn't smell bad. "I use a pine-scented shampoo," she told him matter-of-factly, but glanced and gave him a grin to show she was flattered. Hopefully he wouldn't be embarrassed that she responded to his thought.

She giggled at his comment. "I guess it must! Not that you're, you know, unlikable. Sometimes you just need a little luck with these things." She caught his glance at the cheeze-its and, against his protestations, pressed the buttons until the machine whirred to life. Soon, the bag dropped to the bottom, and she reached down to pick it up. "Here, I won't take no for an answer. You look like you're starving." She held out the bag for Jeff to take, accidentally sending a WHOOSH of air streaking towards him as she did so, enough to thoroughly ruffle his hair. ".... Oops. Sorry," she said sheepishly. "I'm not as good at controlling when I'm tired."

[Jeffrey Dougal]

You seem very nice....

Ha....she was serious? He blinked faintly. Sure, he knew it was part of proper etiquette for saying stuff like that, just like: 'hi, how are you?'.....'That is good, I am doing good too.' It was just part of the scrip humans had together. Juniper, however, wasn't just going through the motion of talking, she was actually being friendly and sincere. He smiled faintly and nodded his head, "it is nice to talk to you too. I mean, you are nice. Too." He lifted his eyebrows and sighed. He was just an idiot. Put him close to any pretty girl, and he'd lose it; guaranteed. After their encounter here at the vending machine, he'd be willing to bet money that Juniper wouldn't acknowledge him in class, or in the hallway. He wouldn't acknowledge himself if he was her. He would take being ignored to being teased about what happened last year at the Talk though. He felt like he would never live that down.

Pine-scented shampoo? His eyes widened like headlights. She heard his thoughts. How much more did she hear? Craaaaap. He was more than mortified--there needed to be a stronger word for it. He gaped for a moment and then sighed, "I am sorry...about what you hear...I just can not help it. I am trying my hardest to control the projection, but that is like...." He scratched the back of his head, "well nearly impossible." Throw into the mix that he just woke up and he was hungry didn't help his control.

She spied what he was looking at and he watched as she pressed the buttons and that holy packet of snacks fell and clanked when it hit the bottom. He breathed out his nose as she picked it up and held it to him. "Fine, since I can not stop--" a gush of wind hit him, sending his hair back and upwards, the cold air sent goosh bumps everywhere. As she apologized, he figured it had to be her power that did it. He wasn't even mad: one, because it didn't hurt him; and two, his power was a constant malfunction, so he knew exactly how it felt. "Since I can not stop you, take my dollar, at least, so you aren't out any money." It was a perfect deal, right? Since his own dollar wouldn't work, he could give it to her, because she had said she had more dollars with her, right? He smiled as he took the bag from her and held out the crinkled little dollar.

[Juniper Birdsong]

Juniper always tried to be as sincere as possible. Talking to people was a pleasure - unless, of course, they were mean or rude. But Jeff was just cute and slightly awkward, and Juniper really did mean what she said. She smiled as he returned the compliment, albeit a little haltingly. "Thank you. We'll have to talk more in class now, I just never thought of a good reason before." Because, unlike what Jeff thought, she would most certainly make a point in knowing him now; it would be rude not to. Trying to get food was very serious business! And now that they had done it together, she considered them good friends. It was how her mind worked.

Shoot. She shouldn't have commented on his thought, now he was obviously uncomfortable. Time to do some reassurance. "Oh, don't worry about it, really," she assured him, glancing at the floor. "I'm just sorry you have no control over it. I mean, our thoughts are usually the one thing we can keep to ourselves, and well.... You can't. I don't mind though. Really. If it helps, I could tell you what I'm thinking." She didn't know what would help him feel more comfortable around her, but she thought she would offer it anyway. It was a little embarrassing, what she was thinking about, but hey - even when he had embarrassing thoughts, he had no choice. She felt like it was a friendly thing to offer.

She was embarrassed already, though, about her lack of control. "I'm usually pretty good at controlling it," she said, biting her lip. "I guess I'm just sleepy. And hungry." Her stomach growled again, and her gaze turned back to the machine as she handed him the bag. "Maybe I'll have more luck with yours too?" she pondered, nodding in thanks as she took the dollar and tried her best to flatten it as much as possible before sticking it into the machine. First try - didn't work. Second try - she held her breath, and after a few moments when the bill didn't come out, she flashed a smile at Jeff. "I guess it does like me," she giggled, turning back to press a few buttons. A few moments later, she reached down to grab a granola bar, eagerly ripping open the package and taking a bite. She could've just made her goodbyes and gone back upstairs, but she didn't really want to yet, even if her body was tired and her eyes were half-closed. Jeff was still here, and she didn't want to leave him yet. "So, what were you doing at 1 in the morning?" she asked. "I mean, were you working on something, or did you just wake up?"

[Jeffrey Dougal]

She actually said she would make it a point to talk to him in class now. He blinked, completely taken back a few steps--figuratively. Sure, Jeff had made friends before. Guy friends, and even then, the term was applied loosely. His friends were always tentative--now that he had his power, because most hated Jeff's not-said words echoing in their brains, or his stark and honest opinion about them. He could absolutely love someone's personality, but if they knew how much he hated their bad breath, well then that was the end of that. Juniper honestly meant what she was saying, and Jeff was slow to realize how easy he had just made a friend. Now, however, he feared that he would mess that all up. "Yes, definitely." He smiled lamely. He couldn't think of anything clever to say.

If she meant to reassure him by apologizing and telling him it wasn't fair that he couldn't keep his thoughts to himself....she got half the job done. Jeff was...resigned. He knew, very well, that his power was a monster and very, very hard to control because it was, by the very definition, himself that he was fighting. It was a paradox...if you don't think too much about it. Jeff had to control his brain, which was the part of him that was in control of everything--except itself? His thoughts ran away from him, against his own begging and pleading. If the girl sitting next to him in class wore a low cut top, and Jeff tried his best to focus on his work, his brain still won and he would get caught looking at/thinking about the girl next to him. Never failed. "Thank you for your understanding. I am working all the time to get better." He could be honest with himself about the hopeless power that he had, but he could also recognize how much more control he had on it than he did two years ago. Her offer of telling him what she was thinking was tempting....very tempting. "No one has offered to do that before," he wasn't all too sure why he blushed at that particular moment, "I would not argue if you did?" He wasn't about to tell her to do that, however, because it was her mind and her thoughts were her own. If she wanted to tell him what she was thinking, then yeah! Jeff will listen---if she had good things to say.

Focus, sleep, and hunger levels seemed to play a part in the control of both of their powers. Jeff himself was still sleep-groggy (he was quickly leaving that behind however, as he started to enjoy their encounter more and more), and he was very hungry indeed. He glared daggers at the machine when it accepted the dollar. He almost wanted to smack it. It made him look like a fool. "I do not blame it." He finally said after having a staring contest with the snack dispenser. He blushed again and distracted himself by eating the Cheez-its.

When she asked what he was doing at one in the morning, he had to wait until his mouth was clear before he could answer her question. He almost didn't want to, however, because his stomach was roaring for more tribute. "I rolled out of bed." He answered with an awkward shrug. It was kinda lame, but what part about Jeff wasn't? "What about you?" He was pretty curious, if he wanted to admit it to himself. Which he didn't. But he did. But then again he didn't. He munched on more of the cheesey squares--now he was making sure he never had more than a couple in his mouth, so he could talk around them if he needed to.

[Juniper Birdsong]

Once you were friends with Juniper, it was very, very hard to break that friendship. It had only occurred to her once or twice in the past, mostly just from moving from Oregon to Vermont and losing contact. The occasional thought coming from Jeff's mind wasn't going to be enough to keep her away. She was loyal to the core. "Maybe on the next partner project in bio class, we can work together," she suggested kindly, returning his smile.

She couldn't imagine not being able to trust your own thoughts. It must have been very hard, and she sort of understood why he might not have very many friends. People were sensitive, and if they caught him thinking anything rude or unsatisfactory towards them, it would definitely be hard to keep friends. All the more reason why she was now determined to stick to his side. "I'm sure you'll get more control over time," she assured him. "After all, that's why we're all here at Hammel, rather than trying to live among regular people." Just recently she had been able to produce an air scooter, which she definitely couldn't have done a year or two ago. Next step - tornadoes. She wasn't surprised when he admitted no one had offered to share their thoughts before; it was a very personal thing. Still, she was an extremely open person, and she was willing to be the first person to share with him. He seemed a little hesitant to ask her to, so she went ahead and just dove in. "Hmm. Well, I'm thinking that you're very sweet, and that your hair looks a little funny since I accidentally blew it when I lost control." Well, at least she was being honest. She hurried on. "I also think... I also think you're cute," she added, hesitating just a little because it wasn't something she normally shared with someone so soon after meeting them. "And lastly, I'm not entirely upset about the fact that you don't have a shirt on." There, that last bit came out as a bit of a rush, but now it was out. She gave him an almost apologetic smile. "I hope I didn't scare you off now," she mumbled, taking a bite of her granola bar to attempt to hide the flush on her face. That had been more awkward than she anticipated. Is that how Jeff felt all the time?

She felt her blush deepen at his comment towards the vending machine. "I try to be as likable as possible," she murmured, rubbing an arm with the opposite hand as her gaze traveled from Jeff to the machine and back. She wasn't used to blushing so much.

Continuing to nibble on the bar, she shifted from one foot to the other as Jeff gave his brief explanation. "Ah, so you were being good and sleeping at a decent hour," she replied, almost jealously. "I've been working on sewing a shirt for the last few hours; it hasn't been cooperating with me." Realizing sewing shirts was not really a common hobby, she explained,"I like making my own clothing. And jewelry. And anything that's possible to be handmade, really. It's a nice hobby to have." After a few more minutes her food was gone, and though she was still a little hungry, at least it was enough to take off the edge. "Well, I guess I should let you get back to sleep....?" She ended it like a question, since she still wasn't really looking forward to leaving yet. She stifled a yawn, knowing at the very least, at least she would probably see and talk to him again soon.

[Jeffrey Dougal]

He smiled faintly when she offered to be a partner in an upcoming project, "I would like that." His smile was small and meek.

Before Jeff had his powers, he had only minor problems communicating with others. His English has never been strong, even though both of his adoptive parents only spoke English, his brain just wasn't big enough to be fluent in two different languages, and Korean won out. His teachers on the base spoke in Korean to him, his friends, his biological parents all were Korean. When his adoptive parents moved him to the United States, that just made it even harder. He has such a hard time getting his contractions in order, and sometimes he messes his tenses up. He just can't seem to remember all of the grammatical rules; he is also never getting rid of that accent of his.

Once his powers emerged, that dug the wedge between himself and the outside, English-speaking world even further apart. No one wanted to really communicate with him because they would either hear his poor-English out loud, or his usual Korean thoughts in their head. Like an echo that made absolutely no sense. His English tutor told him to start thinking in English, to help him work through this language barrier, and he knew that he was getting better, but sometimes the slang and current, not-taught-in-school words confused the hell out of him.

He had no problem understanding her thoughts as she spoke them to him. you're very sweet followed by, your hair looks a little funny, you're cute, and I'm not entirely upset about the fact that you don't have a shirt on. As his mind worked through and picked out what she was saying, a blush spread across his face and his ears like wild fire. No one had ever called him cute before--moms don't count. He had heard that he was sweet before (a confusing word because it also described how food tasted), and his hair being messed up was that big of a surprise....but the other ones. If Jeff had a shirt on, he would probably be clenching and wringing the hem of it like his life depended on. Unfortunately the only thing he had in his hand was the bag of cheeze-its. In a fast-ditch method of thinking quickly, he upended the bag into his mouth to buy him some vital moments for thinking.

She thinks I'm cute. She likes me with my shirt off. Whatwhatwhathow? What do I do? His mind was racing as he chewed the processed cheese and cracker but he could not think of anything smooth, or smart, or nice, or humble, or anything really, to say! At her comment about her being likeable, Jeff swallowed his mouthful and nodded in agreement. “I will say.” I know I like you. Crap. She probably heard that.

Flustered, quite extensively, Jeff nodded at the opportunity to exit. He just couldn’t think straight. “W-w-w-well, yes. It is very late. And you need your sleep as well.” He nodded a few times as if to convince himself to go to sleep. Jeff was very aware that he was certainly not getting back to sleep tonight. “I will see you tomorrow, in class….G-g-good night.”
He was an idiot, but a cute idiot. He turned tail and practically ran back to his dorm, which he shut and locked the door behind him with shaky fingers.

(As you can see, I am great at writing endings nooooot)