Running Partner (Shane)

[Teagan Rae Brooks]

Honestly, Teagan really didn't know what to do with herself. She'd only been at Hammel a few days and classes had started, but she needed to keep herself busy even with the homework she was getting, because otherwise she thought or too many of her duplicates came out to play. She was trying to find a trainer that would be good with her and things weren't so entirely exciting when she had a whole dorm room to herself...at least so far until a roommate got assigned to her.

She wished that Hammel had a hockey team, but she hadn't heard anything about that either and so she'd gone to the gym to go for a run, her annoying blonde curls tied back into a ponytail as she stretched her legs.

The gym was fairly empty as it was juts after classes got out and Teagan planned on taking advantage of that.

[Shane Yama-Turner]

Shane's body was usually wracked with pain, even when he hadn't shapeshifted recently. Shane found that exercise was usually cathartic and generally made him feel better. Thus, he had started going to the gym every other day to work out his pain.

As Shane entered the gym, he froze. There was a cute girl stretching her legs inside the gym. A really cute girl. There usually weren't that many people in the gym, and certainly not many as cute as this girl. He had to say hello, at the very least.

"Uh, hey! I-I'm Shawn- shit, I mean Shane! Shane. Um, are you new here? I haven't seen you before."

[Teagan Rae Brooks]

Teagan's gaze shifted to another person walking into the gym just as he began to speak. She stifled her laughter and grinned at him, not able to help it. "Does your power involve memory lapses?" she asked, not sure if that was the best way to start the conversation, but if he was easy going, he wouldn't get offended. She hadn't said it rudely anyway. She kind of wanted to call him 'Shawn-Shit-Shane'.

"I'm Teagan. Shit, I mean Teagan," she said with a smirk. "And yeah...I'm fresh meat at Hammel. I've only been here a few days." At least somebody was trying to make conversation with her. That was a positive thing! And her duplicates hadn't shown up yet.

[Shane Yama-Turner]

"Uh. Well, no it doesn't. My power, I mean. It doesn't involve memory lapses. That would be pretty sucky." He gave her a lopsided grin as she continued speaking to him. Wow, Shane, he shouted at himself, what a great first impression!

"Oh, well, it's nice to meet you, Teagan." He extended his hand out for a handshake before continuing. "So, if you don't mind my asking, what are your powers?" He hoped that didn't sound too awkward.

[Teagan Rae Brooks]

Teagan laughed again, before looking at him closely. "It was a joke because you said the wrong name..." she told him, as if he hadn't gotten it or had been offended. The last thing Teagan needed to do was offend a potential friend. "You too!" She rocked back and forth on her heels after shaking his hand when he'd asked what her power was.

She opened her mouth to answer, but before she could, her duplicates seemed to think that was an invitation to show up. Two had faded in beside her. Great. Aggressively athletic dupe and flirty dupe. She rolled her eyes at their presence.

"Let's run, Brooks!" one of them ordered.

The other was staring at Shane.

Teagan gestured to them, laughing awkwardly before turning back to Shane. "They must have felt the need to demonstrate," she said. "It's duplication. I can create more of me. Although right now I just manifest them randomly on accident."

[Shane Yama-Turner]

"Oh, right. A joke! Of course." He chuckled awkwardly. He hadn't gotten it at all, but he didn't need to let her know that. At least he knew she wasn't trying to insult him. He probably could've easily taken that the wrong way if he wasn't so focused on not making a fool of himself in front of this girl.

He jumped as Teagan's duplicates popped into existence before his very eyes. "Woah!" He shook his head and examined the two duplicates. Yep, they seemed to be exact copies of Teagan, at least physically. He waved hello to the both of them.

He glanced over at the one on the left. She was gazing at him, as if sizing him up for something. He scratched the back of his neck and looked back over towards the main Teagan.

"Well, that seems like a pretty handy power. You can get more stuff done like that, I guess." He shifted around a bit. He had so many questions, like, were Teagan and her duplicates linked? Did they have their own personalities? What was up with the one that kept staring at him? Ultimately, Shane just decided that it was only fair that he tell her his power before asking more questions.

"So, yeah, I shapeshift into other humans."

[Teagan Rae Brooks]

Teagan wasn't sure if he got the joke or not, but she shrugged it off. She probably shouldn't be making jokes with people she just met. They didn't know her enough to know her quirks or mannerisms, definitely not how she sounded when she was joking. She should know that, but then again, Teagan wasn't exactly great at people pleasing all of the time.

She watched Shane's face as her dupes appeared. "Yeah, it can be. But they can also be pains in the ass," she said, gesturing to her two duplicates. One of them was still standing impatiently as if waiting for her to stop being lazy and the other was still sizing up Shane in the most awkward way possible.

When he told her his power, her ears perked up. "Really?" Now that was even cooler than hers. "Ooh, show me!" she told him. "But just don't turn into me...there's enough of me here."

[Shane Yama-Turner]

Shane grimaced ever so slightly as she asked him to demonstrate his power. He had been afraid of this. Still, it's not like he could just tell her no. She was too cute and he was too lonely to let that happen. Besides, she had shown him hers, so he should show her his.

"Uh, sure. Give me a minute." He always did a few stretches before shifting. His trainer had suggested it to him. It worked, for the most part. One good thing was that his body didn't hurt too much at the moment.

He closed his eyes and reached into the part of himself that activated his shapeshifting. For right now, Shane decided to not do anything too extremely radical. He felt the now-familiar tingling once again. It started at his fingertips and spread up into his arms as they shifted and changed, becoming slightly larger and more muscular. The tingling turned to pain as his face rearranged itself slightly to become more masculine. He grit his teeth. It didn't hurt as much as it usually did, but it was still painful. Similar changes were incurred on the rest of his body as he became more muscular and (in his mind) more handsome.

He took a few deep breaths before spreading his arms and shouting, "Ta-da!!"

[Teagan Rae Brooks]

Teagan watched him closely, hoping she wasn't making him uncomfortable, but this was so damn interesting! He stretched, as if he really knew what he was doing and then seemed to be concentrating before he started morphing. "Whoa!" she exclaimed. "Who are you...by the way?" she asked. He seemed to have some practice, which was nice. Teagan had practically none in her power...which reminded her, a trainer was really needed. Especially when her duplicates just liked to pop up at random.

"Impressive," her duplicate said with a nod and a grin. "I'm jealous. That'd be so fun to have! You could mess with people!"

"Bitchin'!" Teagan said at the same time, practically in-sync with her duplicate.

[Shane Yama-Turner]

"I'm me, only better!" Shane responded to Teagan. He was really glad he had managed to impress her. At least he hadn't wasted his efforts here. Maybe they could be friends. It'd be pretty cool to have a friend who could duplicate themselves.

Shane raised his eyebrows as two of the Teagans responded at the same time. He blushed slightly as they complimented him. That was a nice feeling. To be admired.

"Yeah, I could, but I don't really go for that stuff. I mean, maybe if they were my worst enemy or something, but otherwise, I don't think they're worth the effort. Besides, your power is way more useful. You don't even have to attend class. You could just send one of your duplicates out to do all of your work while you relax in your room."

Shane looked around at the gymnasium for a bit before remembering what he had come here for originally.

"Hey, d'ya want to get some exercise in?"

[Teagan Rae Brooks]

Teagan had to laugh at that. "Wait, so you can shapeshift into a different version of yourself? Not just other people?" That was interesting in her book. She liked learning about the powers of others, mostly because it meant not having to deal with her own. She shrugged at what he said though. "I guess you're right. But if somebody really deserved it, it could prove useful." Some people just asked for it. "And I don't know if I'd say useful. I mean, my duplicate has to retain the information from class for me to retain it and the only duplicate that would actually agree to go to class for me is Amb over here," she said, jerking a thumb to one of the duplicates. "She's the Ambitious Dupe. I just call her that. She got annoyed though when I stopped doing my own work and started to refuse it. Instead she just yells at me to do my homework." Eh, at least she'd gotten to sleep through a few school days.

"Oh, right! That's what I came here for!" It would be nice to run with somebody else after all. Somebody that wasn't one of her duplicates. At her outburst, she absorbed both of her dupes and grinned at him. "They kind of come and go as they please. At least until I get a trainer," she explained.

[Shane Yama-Turner]

Shane shrugged, a sly smile on his face. "Yeah. I can also use traits from other people and make myself look like someone completely new, but thats a lot harder and takes longer." He listened to her intently as she extrapolated on her power. This was certainly interesting. So her power wouldn't be the greatest slacking off tool ever. At least, it seemed that way until she got it under control, which was something that didn't seem likely to happen anytime soon.

He chuckled as she called one of her duplicates Amb. "Wait, Ambitious dupe? So what's she? Stare-creepily-at-guys-she-just-met dupe?"

A bright smile lit up Shane's face as Teagan confirmed that she was here to get some work done. Having a workout partner would be awesome. He blinked once again as Teagan's dupes were reabsorbed. Wow. That was weird.

"So, you want to run a few laps?"

As he asked her this, he removed the jacket he had been wearing all day and tied it around his waist.

[Teagan Rae Brooks]

"Yeah, I can imagine. These powers seem like they take a lot of work, so it was cool to see you even do that! How long have you been training?" Teagan asked eagerly. She was very interested in others and their powers.

"Yeah...I'm trying to kind of figure out which personality trait of mine they all have," she explained with a shrug, laughing at what he'd said. "Well, I hope that creepy isn't a apart of my personality. But I'm guessing that's flirty dupe. She really finds something attractive about every guy I talk to. It's really annoying. And that doesn't mean...I'm a huge flirt or anything. My dupes...they have personality traits of mine and they're exaggerated." She felt the need to add that last part and felt a bit embarrassed. Explaining her power was always complicated. And her duplicates made her question who she was.

"I'm totally up for that!" she agreed. After all, working out was better and easier when you did it with someone and now her dupes seemed to be leaving her alone, so it was good timing.

[Shane Yama-Turner]

"Yeah, my powers do take a fair bit of finagaling. I've been training them for like, two years at this point." He nodded, as if to confirm the information to himself as well as her. He was sure that was right. "I don't really enjoy them all that much honestly. They mean I have to go here. Not that it's not nice here, it's just..." He looked away silently, staring at the far wall. He missed his mothers.

He listened to her intently as she explained how her duplicates had different traits of her personality. "So, wait, they all have different personalities? That's weird."

He ran in place for a bit as she agreed to go running with him. This should be fun. Running partners with a cute girl. Yeah, sure, lots of fun.

[Teagan Rae Brooks]

"Oh wow," Teagan said, slightly shocked. If it took him two years to get to this point, how long would it take her to not have her duplicates popping up everywhere at random? "And I guess I understand what you mean. It's not bad here...but I miss home." California...the beach...the surfing. She was taken away from her home and her parents hadn't been too keen on her being a meta-human. She wondered how Shane's parents felt. "Where are you from?"

"And yeah...it's annoying. They make me self-conscious sometimes." She was just glad that they weren't bothering her anymore right now and that she could run like she originally planned. She fell into a light jog beside Shane.