Barking In A Winter Wonderland?

[Scout Castien]

It was freezing. Since when did she think it was a good idea to take a ten pm stroll near the pond? Especially when it was snowing, and the stuff was everywhere, and her jacket definitely wasn't thick enough for this weather! Of course, the moment Scout felt a tug on one of the two leashes she held, nearly tripping as she was yanked forward, she remembered- it was because she spoiled Roxie and Asche, and the two of them had wanted this nice little stroll. "Guys," she whined, glad to feel the emanations of joy from the two dragging her through the snow but a bit miffed that she couldn't feel her toes. "Guys, seriously, wait up! You don't need to run everywhere!"

It hadn't been a terrible walk thus far, really. The sidewalks were cleared enough, there wasn't much ice, and she was bundled up well enough, of course. A nice peacoat, jeans, boots, even a black scarf and black gloves. But- no hat. She should've worn a hat, but she hated what they did to her hair. She yelped as her numbed fingers lost hold of Roxie's lead, who promptly took off to run alongside of the edge of the lake. She shifted her pale olive gaze to her Irish Setter, but Asche was merely staring at her, tail wagging. "You're the good girl, aren't ya? Come on, let's go grab her." She paused long enough to bend and pat the older dog's head, and was nearly scared out of her wits by Roxie's barking.

"ROXIE!" Scout scrambled forward, catching sight of her beloved Pit Bull charging towards someone, and she cursed. Roxie wasn't mean, that was the thing. That was her common way of saying, Hi, I'm going to tackle you and lick you all over and love on you forever and ever and ever! but, as she was a Pit, most thought she would be attacking. She couldn't count the number of times she nearly lost her footing as she tried to get to Roxie before the dog could aim to tackle the person, but it was no use- all she could do was call, "She's nice, I promise! Roxieee get back here! No kisses for strangers!"

[Tanner Larson]

Not many people knew, but Tanner liked walking at night. It was quiet, calm, peaceful even, and without a lot of other people about to interrupt his thoughts, he could really retreat into his mind for a little while. Though he had been trying - with modest success - over the past few months to become more outgoing, at heart he was still that shy kid who preferred his own company to that of others. These night walks, then, provided the young blonde with the perfect opportunity to just be with himself.

Most of the time.

As usual, his random wanderings had led him to the lake on the outskirts of town. He had been strolling the downtown area, and from Main Street it was really just a straight-shot down a tree-lined path to the field that surrounded the lake. Tanner liked the sort of quaint atmosphere of Pilot Ridge: the fact that there was such a large, grassy area just short of a mile away from busy downtown was a testament to the small town's village-y feel.

Having reached the lake, Tanner stood in the grass, looking out at the still water. This far away from town, one could see the stars quite clearly - a thousand bright points dotting the night sky. It was quite beautiful, really. Though it was very cold, the pyrokinetic felt very little of it: as his internal temperature was higher than that of an average human, he could remain comfortable in colder conditions than others could. As it were, a pair of jeans and long-sleeve shirt were plenty for him.

A sigh escaped his lips as he continued looking out at the water. It really was very serene, the entire scene. But no sooner had he done so, than a rather loud fit of barking interrupted the silence. Turning towards the source of the noise, he saw a rather large canine running towards him. He couldn't make out the particular breed due to the darkness, but it was very clearly a sizable animal running towards him. His eyes widened just slightly as he watched it a bit cautiously. He had been to the lake dozens of times: surely he would have known by now if there were territorial creatures lurking about? He heard, then, a woman's voice calling after the dog, and shortly thereafter, said dog was upon him.

He was prepared for it, so when the dog stood up to greet him with a rather wet lick on his nose, he didn't immediately fall over, but rather took a step back to steady his balance. However, when the pitbull put more of its weight onto him, he found that he wasn't quite as prepared as he had thought, and down then went. Tanner landed softly in the grass, the dog continuing to bark at him and lick him on occasion.

"Uh, it's - pppt - okay, really," he said between licks to the face. "I... don't mind." But if the dog could be pulled off him as soon as humanly possible, that would have been terrific.

Some enchanted evening.

[Scout Castien]

Oh, God, don't sue, don't sue, I don't want my puppy to die! It was a frantic thought, and not an unfounded one. Pit Bulls weren't exactly America's favored dog- plenty of people harbored irrational fears of them, but surprisingly, she caught no sense of fear from the guy that Roxie was loving on as Scout came up beside them, panting slightly. Jeez, she needed to work out more often. But, no...what she could feel was a sense of surprise, and it mingled with her own surprise quite beautifully. He wasn't even angry. Well, then, that was a shock.

Leaning forward to hook a hand into Roxie's collar as Asche settled to her haunches nearby (was that amusement she felt from the Irish Setter? Really, Asche?) Scout tugged the wriggling year-and-a-half dog off of the stranger, tapping two fingers across her muzzle sharply and causing her to sneeze. "Rox, when I say stop, you stop. That wasn't nice. Not everyone likes your kisses." She whined as she squirmed away, slinking to sit beside Asche, who offered her a light nuzzle. Sighing, Scout shook her head before offering her hand to the guy on the ground.

The redhead normally wasn't one to go out of her way to talk to people, but if you caught her alone- as in, away from a crowd- she was relaxed and comfortable enough to seem like a kind, amiable woman, even outgoing. And she was- all but the last. Maybe she had been once, but now, not a chance. That could mean parties. Parties meant lots of people. No, thanks, gonna pass on that one. Still, it was kinda like the Doc had told her- shutting herself off completely wasn't healthy. So, as she offered to help him up, she gave a sheepish, slightly shy smile. "I'm so, so sorry. Roxie is really just a big ball of love. If she gets a good feel from someone, she just wants to love them forever. I'm Scout, by the way."

[Tanner Larson]

Tanner wasn't angry: while he did not own a dog - or any pet, for that matter - himself, he did know that there was really only so much one could do to control their pet, as they were living creatures with minds of their own. What was the use in getting angry over something that couldn't be helped? Beyond that, Tanner was just naturally a pretty low-key guy, and it really wasn't like him to suddenly become angry, especially when he had otherwise been in a good mood.

That said, what he was was embarrassed. The fact that he couldn't support the weight of a single dog was definitely cause for shame, and the fact that he was now lying on the ground being licked like an ice cream cone was also pretty humiliating. His cheeks grew red, and he suddenly found himself wishing he had left the lake sooner. Perhaps this could have been avoided.

Thankfully, the girl who owned the dogs managed to pry the canine off of him fairly quickly once she had caught up, and the blonde sat up on the ground, watching her discipline the animal. The whole thing was sort of interesting, since she seemed to get it to behave with relative ease.

Tanner didn't get a good look at the girl, though, until she was standing over him, reaching a hand down to help him up. His eyes went wide, but he recovered quickly: for while she was clearly very attractive girl, he wasn't really in the mindset to consider such things. As it was, he politely declined her hand - she didn't look like she could really help much, physically speaking - and rose to stand on his own, brushing any dirt off his jeans. "It's not a problem at all," he said sincerely. "More excitement than I've had in a while," he added with a smile. "I'm Tanner. Uh, nice to meet you," he added somewhat shyly as he extended a hand towards the girl. "You're, uh, pretty good with dogs, considering that one of them did just piledrive me," he offered with a bit of a nervous chuckle. "Do you go to school around here?" He meant at Hammel, but he sometimes felt weird talking about talking about his abilities so openly, especially to a stranger.

[Scout Castien]

The flush of embarrassment was the next emotion to catch the empath's attention, and she felt her own cheeks flush slightly as an effect. She, herself, wasn't quite embarrassed, especially since he didn't seem to be taking the event too horribly. Aside from being embarrassed, that was, and she assumed it had something to do with her dog knocking him on his ass. He was even blushing- and the fact that the emotion was pretty predominant meant a gentle blush was rising in her cheeks, too. She couldn't help but experience the embarrassment, it was strong enough that she couldn't block it whatsoever. "She's kind of...a beast. She means well. But you took the hit like a champ."

It was a lame excuse at a joke, but clearly the perpetrator was listening- and seemed to understand, because there was a happy yip that followed her words. With a roll of her eyes, she offered her own shy smile and took the offered hand, attempting to pull on her powers and send a soothing wave towards him- not to wipe the embarrassment completely away, but to at least lessen it a bit. "Tanner. It's a pleasure," the woman replied, voice a soft murmur. Yet with his words, her blush deepened, and she offered a sheepish sort of grin.

"Uh, yeah, she's...a handful. Still young, but when they were pups, I asserted my place as pack leader, and...I know how to soothe them." Her powers weren't restricted to just humans. She could soothe animals, as well, which was why she planned to go to college after she could control her powers for something that let her work with animals. At his question, she offered a nod. "Hammel? Yeah...I mean, I should've graduated three years ago...but..." Maybe he'd get it, maybe he wouldn't. She'd graduated a year early academically, but was still very much stuck as far as controlling her powers went.

[Tanner Larson]

Had Tanner known of Scout's ability, he might have at least tried to tone down his embarrassment lest he make the girl feel badly or uncomfortable. Regardless, as soon as he took the girl's hand into his own, he immediately felt a little better: there was still lingering awkwardness that he assumed he would hold onto for the rest of their meeting, but it was as though somebody had lifted some of the weight off his shoulders. It felt almost refreshing.

He grinned as Scout 'complimented' him. "Scant comfort," he replied with a bit of a chuckle, shaking his head slightly from side to side. He still felt weird about the whole thing. He had taken this walk dozens of times before and had never run into anyone. Now suddenly he was talking to someone after having been run over by her dog. It certainly was proving to be a more interesting night than usual.

"That thing is young?" He couldn't help but ask; both dogs seemed fairly large - and heavy enough to topple him, as it were - so he was a bit surprised to hear that. That said, he really knew very little about dogs, so perhaps he shouldn't have been. "I've never had a pet," he said, mostly just for conversational purposes. As the girl mentioned she was still have Hammel despite having past the typical graduation age, the blonde could only nod; he wasn't quite sure what to say that wouldn't be awkward. He figured she meant that she hadn't yet gained full control over her abilities - why else would someone be held back? "Ah, okay. I go there, too. It's my last year."

[Scout Castien]

Roxie and Asche were moving closer, almost creeping, as though they were trying to be stealthy. As Scout pulled her hand from Tanner's, she threw them a glance, and they froze mid-step, watching the two with wide, 'innocent' eyes. "Come on, guys, come say hello- nicely," she said, motioning them closer. It was most definitely laugh-worthy, watching them squirm forward, plopping down by his feet.

Raising a brow and grinning, she shrugged a shoulder. "Scant though it may be, it's still a comfort, right? Tanner, this is Asche..." -she laid a hand on the Setter's head, who wagged her tail and offered a doggy grin- "And the bulldozer is none other than Roxie, though I'm sure you realized that from my frantic shouts." Roxie had her head down, snuffling at the grass, and when her name was mentioned, she glanced up with a harrumph. Clearly, she knew she was being talked about.

Laughing softly at the Tanner's evident surprise, she nodded. "She's probably around the age of a teenager right now. She won't get much bigger, if she grows at all." Scout wasn't a self-proclaimed expert on dogs or anything, but she had done a bit of research into both breeds out of curiosity when she'd gotten each of them. Surprisingly, both had been fairly cheap- well, Asche was a gift, and Roxie was from a shelter that worked to save Pit Bulls. "Last year, huh? Bet you're excited to get out of there. If you don't mind me asking, what do you do?" As in, powers. Scout was always curious in that sense, eager to learn what others could do. "I'm...an empath," she offered with a slight smile. Yeah, her power kind of sucked. She couldn't accomplish much with it, really, and it had made her life pretty....not hard, but not easy, either. A lot had changed.

[Tanner Larson]

Tanner couldn't help but smile at the antics of the two dogs. It was odd: he didn't know much about animals, but these canines seemed almost like people. They were sneaking around, then standing stock still, and they really seemed to respond to Scout, especially when their names were called. At one point when he was much younger, Tanner had wanted to get a dog (because a blonde boy with a golden retriever puppy was so original), but he'd lost interest in that pretty soon after he'd gotten the idea. Then he'd been sent off to Hammel, where he couldn't have a large pet since he lived in the dorms, and yadda yadda he never got a dog.

As the two dogs sat by his feet, Tanner kneeled down in front of them, scratching each one on the head as they were introduced to him. "They are nice dogs," he observed aloud; he hadn't been sure they would be given his first impression, and he was still a bit shaky given the fact that they weren't exactly small dogs, but they did seem fairly tame now that Scout had taken control.

He stood up once more, nodding in response to Scout's question. "Yeah, I'm looking forward to getting outta here, I guess," he replied with a small smile. "Oh, I'm a pyro," he said, raising his right hand and igniting a small flame on the tip of his forefinger; that was usually the easiest way to explain his power, by demonstrating it. Once the flame had gone out, he shoved both hands into his pockets. He nodded as Scout said what she could do; he knew what empathy was, though he didn't quite understand it fully. "Ah, and... how's that going?" He asked somewhat awkwardly, feeling like he didn't really know what else to say. He briefly wondered if Scout knew how awkward he felt, but he soon scrubbed that thought from his mind.

[Scout Castien]

Scout was eternally grateful to her dogs. Many people had the idea that dogs could sense emotions and were exceptional at comforting someone, even through the simple act of petting them. Scout saw hers as a sort of blessing. When she had her break-downs, when she got overwhelmed, she'd go straight home and spend hours curled up in bed, on the couch, wherever, with both dogs curled up against her. They would nuzzle her, and their calm, centered way would seep in through her empath powers. She would breathe in the emotions, so to speak, until she was calm. Hell, she usually fell asleep with them.

Not many people knew how much she relied on them. The dogs could be rambunctious, but they were tied to her very closely, and they were extremely sensitive to her. They listened because they cared. "They're my best friends." Well, more like her only friends, really, but regardless. She watched as he greeted them, smiling warmly. Thankfully, they got along well with pretty much everyone.

Her brows raised as he showed her a bit of his power. She could sense his awkwardness, so much that it nearly made her squirm- but luckily, it wasn't overwhelming. She could remind herself that it was his emotion, not hers. Her smile toned down just a bit as she shrugged. "It's going, I guess. It's something that's extremely hard to control. You could be seen as a bit of luck on my part...if Roxie had, say, run into a group of people, it might've turned out badly for me. Emotions can be overwhelming from groups." She glanced to the lake, and then back at him. "Do you...wanna come walk with us? I mean, you don't have to, but it isn't often I get to really talk to anyone." An awkward laugh. Yeah, it was true. She rather liked stumbling into situations where she could have one-on-one time with someone.

[Tanner Larson]

Tanner nodded as Scout confided in him that her dogs were her best friends. This sort of statement didn't surprise him at all: while he had never owned a pet himself, he knew of the strong bond that developed between a person and his or her pet, even if he didn't know that such a connection was augmented due to Scout's meta abilities. And while the blonde didn't fully understand empathic powers, he did sympathize with the girl: it sounded like she felt other people's emotions whether she wanted to or not, so he supposed she was lucky her dogs 'bumped' into him instead of someone a bit more dramatic. As it was, he was normally pretty laid back.

"Yeah, sure," Tanner replied when asked if he would like to join the three of them on the rest of their walk. He had just been sort of standing there anyway, so it wasn't like he had anything better to do. Granted, his intentions had been to have some alone time, but he didn't mind the company, especially if said company was rather pretty. "So..." he started as they began walking together, "where are you from?" There were a lot of questions one could ask a new acquaintance, so he figured he'd might as well learn a little bit more about this girl.

[Scout Castien]

Scout smiled gratefully when he agreed to join them, bending to scoop up the leashes. The dogs would walk with them without prompting or needing the leashes, really- except for those moments when Roxie became a total spaz-but, you know, leash law and all that. Falling into step beside him, she grinned. "Would you believe me if I said I grew up not far from here? Wallingford, actually. Really small town- everyone knew everyone else." And, of course, that had been the main reason her parents had wanted to move.

What were you supposed to say when your star-scholar of a daughter, a rising star on the cheer squad, suddenly had a breakdown and was hospitalized? They didn't know much about what had happened, but it was no secret in her home town that she'd tried to kill herself. She didn't know if she'd ever return, no matter how much she missed it. "What about you?" She peered at him curiously, wondering if maybe he was a native, too. Even if he was, this might've been a huge change for him. Pilot Ridge was vastly different from a lot of places in a lot of ways, after all.

[Tanner Larson]

Tanner nodded his head; what wasn't to believe? He was born only a few hours South of there (okay, a bit more than that, but it was really only 3-4 states away). "Oh, gotcha," he said, having never heard of Wallingford but taking her word for it that it was fairly close by. "I grew up in New Jersey," he replied when asked of his own hometown. "Practically neighbors," he added with a grin. "Similar vibe, I guess: pretty small town and all that, but I guess not that small." Though he was twelve years old when he was brought to Hammel, he still felt sometimes as though he remembered only very little about life in New Jersey. It had been a very long six and a half years, as it were.

"So, how long have you been at Hammel?" He asked; the blonde new that Scout had been there longer than she had planned, since she was older than the typical graduation age, but he was curious as to when she had gotten there. It seemed strange that in however many years they were both at Hammel together, they had just never run into one another. Or perhaps they had been in a class together or something and simply didn't remember it. Either way, Tanner was starting to think this school was a lot bigger than he'd at first expected it to be. "I've been here just over six years, myself."

[Scout Castien]

"Small town? Wait....Jersey is small?" Scout was confused by this. Of course, she'd never really gone far outside of Wallingford. Now that was a small town. "The Wall...that's what we jokingly called it in school...well, it's got less than nine hundred people. Maybe less than eight hundred. Itty bitty. D'you know how it feels to not get away with anything cause the cops know your parents from high school?" She laughed. Not that she'd been a bad kid, she really hadn't, but she'd been a normal teenager. Parties, drinking, she'd even dabbled in a bit of green once. Talk about cliche, but she did hang with the older cheerleaders and often got involved in some slightly illegal activities.

She raised her brows, surprised, when he told her how long he'd been there. "Huh. That's weird. I've been here about six years, too. Got here when I was fourteen. But, to be fair, I kinda keep to myself pretty well, so that's probably why we haven't met before now." A wry smile and a shrug. "What's your story? What brought you here? I mean like....how did you find out? If you don't mind me prying a bit," she finished hurriedly. She was a tad bit awkward in conversation, tending towards her tongue moving faster than her mind. He might not want to talk about what had happened when he'd discovered his powers, after all.