windswept {Forrest&Skye}

[Lany Bishop]

Lany had her own little spot by the pond. She came there during lunch, because she would often (if not always) bring her own, and she liked to eat in peace, with the fish swimming at her feet. Today she had a chicken sandwich built with mayo, tomato, and lettuce. She munched on it contemplatively, enjoying the perfect autumn temperature. Her long white blouse – a rarity, since most of the time she dressed in jeans and a t-shirt – folded underneath her legs.

Lany wasn’t sure if she was allowed to feed the Koi bread-crumbs or not, but there were no signs that said she couldn’t. When she was finished with her sandwich she tossed in some and washed the fish gather: all bright orange and white and yellow…it was very pretty, really. Lany tucked her knees to her chest and watched the sight.

She pulled out her phone and checked the time. There was nearly twenty minutes left.

It wasn’t hard accessing her power. She let a breeze build up around her, let it pick up her hair and swirl like a gentle cyclone around her body so that the leaves rattled about her frame. Hers was an apt power: she was as unassuming and as invisible as the wind, as quiet as a breeze, but also a force to be reckoned with…though she might not have known it, not yet. Lany let the dead leaves sweep in circles and flutter about. Some of them drifted down to rest gently on the pondwater.

The feeling that she was being watched dawned slowly on her. Lany blinked and looked behind her – almost instantly the leaves dropped to the ground. She came face to face with two boys (twins?), with…a video camera?

“Hey!” she protested, instantly offended.

[Forrest & Skye Cheng]

Lunchtime had quickly turned into exploring time as the twins gobbled down their meals fast enough to head outside with their video camera, eager to get some fun in before classes started up again. There were quite a few students still milling around in the cooling weather, and they got some interesting shots of people practicing their abilities in the courtyard before sneaking off to the pond to see what they might find there.

Last time, it had been Oriel in all his majestic, maned glory. Today, they got a peek of a super cute girl they didn't recognize. Before she caught sight of the twins, they darted behind some bushes, barely pressing their camera close enough to capture what she was doing.

At first the girl just fed some koi, which was totally adorable and made the twins giggle silently to themselves as they zoomed in on the fish's blubbery mouths. Then a breeze suddenly seemed to pick up around her where before there had been none, and it didn't take the combined intelligence of the two boys to determine she was an aerokinetic.

"Oooh," Forrest breathed, panning out to capture the swirling leaves in the frame. "So pretty!"

"Shhh," Sky hushed him quietly, but he was also oogling at the sight.

Before they knew it, though, the girl suddenly seemed to become aware of their presence, probably because they had been gradually scooting out of the cover of the bushes in order to get a better shot. They both gave her deer-in-the-headlights stares before darting back into the bushes, peering out with wide eyes.

"You didn't see us!" Skye told her, whoever she was. She really was super cute!

"Yeah, we were never here. Uh, just go back to... To doing that awesome thing with the leaves," Forrest added with a giggle, discreetly aiming the camera at the girl again.

Was she gonna explode at them? The twins were ready to bolt if it looked that way.

[Lany Bishop]

Lany got up on her feet, stumbling once over her long white blouse. Already her cheeks were turning pink with anger.

Though the twins seemed innocent enough, she had lived with a pair of Gestalts for as long as she could remember, and (at least according to her) they were always quite mean to her. They would play pranks and make jokes. They would move her stuff or sometimes break it. Lany loved her siblings, of course, but sometimes she thought they lived to make her life harder. And now these two! Were all twins so obnoxious?

“I did see you!” she protested. “And you shouldn’t record people without their permission!”

Who knew what they were doing with those tapes? Lany put her hands on her hips, as if to stare them down, but she wasn’t very good at it. She was too small and her voice was too weak. She wished she’d had Devlin here to teach them some manners.

“I could get you in a lot of trouble for that, you know,” she told them.

[Forrest & Skye Cheng]

Aww, she looked so cute and terrifying with that angry pink blush! The twins were both giddy and scared by the look in her eyes, wondering what they had gotten themselves into.

They really did't mean to be mean! It was all in good fun in their eyes, and maybe if the pretty girl asked nicely, they would delete (most of) the footage they had captured of her. 'Cause that leaf stuff was seriously cool! Also she was definitely totally pretty and deserved to be on camera.

"B-b-but... You're so cute and do cool things!" Skye protested. "We couldn't help but record you!"

"Yeah, you can't go keeping that attractiveness and coolness to yourself, it's not fair!" Forrest added, poking his head back out of the bushes and giving her a lopsided grin.

Oh, they tried to flirt so hard... They never really knew if it would work or not, everyone was different.

Skye skittered out of his hiding place, taking a few steps closer to Lany with what he hoped was a charming smile. "I'm Skye, by the way, and the creep is Forrest."

"I'm notta creep! You're a creep!"

At the mention of getting in trouble, they both gave her their best puppy-eyed looks, pouting their lips and looking as sad as possible.

"You wouldn't want to do that to us! We didn't mean any harm," Forrest told her, scrambling out of the bushes himself. "We can, uh... We can buy you dinner!" As if that was good repayment for creeping...

[Lany Bishop]

“I can too keep it to myself. And it’s perfectly fair.” Her voice was quite peeved, and she looked it, too, her fists balled into her long white blouse. She stared at Skye (who was the closest to her) underneath her dark lashes, a look that wasn’t quite as intimidating as she wanted it to be.

Lany was a girl who valued her privacy, and that was hard to find in such a large family. And, as far as she was concerned, these twins ruined her quiet lunch. Though all their flirtations were getting to her, against her wishes, Lany reminded herself not to be such a ‘baby pushover’, as her siblings called it.

“For all I know you’re – you’re doing things with it!” Why else would boys run around taking videos of girls? The thought made her blush bright and vivid. “Or you’ll put it online somewhere.”

She made a grab for the camera in Skye’s hand, but he moved too quick for her. Lany crossed her arms over her chest, brows set, lips thin.

“Dinner?” she wrinkled her nose. Lany was obviously taken aback by this offer, and for a moment her eyes widened, looking between the two. What were they playing at? It surely must have been another prank, like the kinds John and Jacob pulled all the time – they really were alike. She couldn’t imagine what sort of things they’d get up to, should they ever meet. Then her usual stance returned. She looked determined again. “I’m not going to go to dinner with a bunch of” – she borrowed their term for it – “creeps!”

[Forrest & Skye Cheng]

The twins hadn't meant to make the girl so mad! They were starting to feel bad now, because she was obviously quite upset, and they weren't exactly the best at comforting people, especially considering they were the ones that had upset her in the first place.

Skye gave her a wide-eyed puppy pout as her glare landed on him, and he meekly dipped his head; sure, she wasn't all that intimidating in general, but they were easily spooked! If only they knew she was related to that other pair of hilarious gestalts...

D'aww, look at that blush.

"What!" Forrest yelped, shaking his head vigorously; Skye did the same. "We wouldn't do that!"

"We're not that creepy. Or perverted." Usually.

"And we won't put it online if you don't want us to," Forrest finished with what he hoped was a comforting smile. While they didn't usually ask permission to do so, they wouldn't put it up if someone blatantly asked them not to.

But they also would NOT let anyone touch their cameras. Who knew what might happen to their footage?

She seemed offput by their offer for dinner, but they continued to smile at her with fluttering eyes, hoping she might take them up. Ah, but when she finally spoke... "We're not really creeps," Forrest told her, sighing loudly.

"We're just aspiring film-makers!" Skye chirped. "And you are a stunning actress without even trying."

[Lany Bishop]

Lany was getting confused. Like with her twin brothers, there was a lot of talking; she was starting to think that this, too, was indicative of all Gestalts. She could hardly keep up.

Frowning, she said, “Well now I know you’re lying. I’m not a very good actor.” This wasn’t an act of modesty: she knew this to be truth; her nature would never allow her to be. Despite this, though, she was starting to think these boys might be earnest. At least they hadn’t run away laughing, off to go do who knew what with the footage they’d captured. At least, she thought, they were explaining themselves.

But she was not ready to forgive them yet. “You had better not,” she demanded. “If I see you put any of it online, I’ll – I’ll tell someone. And, you’ll get in trouble.”

Lany was not entirely sure if this was true or not, but she hoped she wasn’t making a bluff. She looked down at the video camera, wanting to take it, find the video and delete it for good…she was horribly embarrassed about witnessing herself in recording. It never felt right to her.

“Well, if you’re not creeps,” she said, looking back and forth between them, “then what are you doing?”

[Forrest & Skye Cheng]

People tended to get irritated at how much the twins rattled on between each other. That was completely normal.

"Nonsense!" Forrest responded, and Skye nodded in agreement. "We would never lie about such a thing."

Skye took a risk and came closer to the girl, offering a more gentle smile. "We really do like what you were doing, with the leaves. It was very pretty."

"You don't have to be outgoing to be a good actress, not to us at least. It was still beautiful!" They were being very truly honest, and hoped that she would understand that. As much as they liked to mess with people, they obviously knew they needed to be gentler with this one.

They each lifted a hand and crossed their opposite index fingers into an 'x' shape, which was sort of their way of making a pinkie promise. "If anything ends up online, we give you the complete right to get us both in ginormous trouble," Skye told her. Forrest nodded.

At her question, they both looked at each other again, wondering how best to explain themselves without sounding like creeps. "Well, we like to go around and get clips of cool things-"

"-like people using their abilities-"

"And make our own short little films or montages or whatever, for fun." Forrest shrugged. "It's just a hobby, really."

[Lany Bishop]

Now she was blushing for different reasons. Lany was easily embarrassed, and their exaggerated praise cut her deep, made her lift her slight fingers to put them over her lips. She never knew what to say in such situations. And coming from two people – well, it was too much for her to bear. She blushed and stuttered for a second. “You’re just saying that,” she mumbled, at last.

Hurriedly tucking an errant strand of brown hair behind her ear, she glanced down at her feet, then at the two boys, whose pinkies were crossed with one another’s. She tiled her head – then sighed, deciding that this was a battle she’d rather not fight. Lany could get them in a lot of trouble, but what was the point of that?

“…It still sounds a bit creepy to me,” she admitted. “You should really ask first. It’s just manners.”

But she no longer seemed livid. Lany was starting to believe that these boys were simply misguided, that their trespass was nothing other than an honest mistake…which was more than she could say for her own pair of Gestalt brothers.

“Whatever, it’s fine. I might have overreacted. I won’t tell anyone,” she promised, “unless I find out you’re using it for weird things.”

[Forrest & Skye Cheng]

Oh, they wished they could figure out how to put the pretty girl more at ease! The twins had never been very good at talking with shy people, and they had obviously found one. They didn't want to continue to make her nervous, though, which they could tell she was from the blush and stutter. Not that it wasn't adorable - because it was - but they wanted to see her smile and laugh!

"We're not exactly good at manners," Skye told her with a nervous grin.

"Maybe you should teach us a thing or two!" Forrest added cheekily, bouncing closer and putting a (hopefully) comforting arm over her shoulder. Between the two of them, he tended to be a bit softer, but neither of them were sure she would be aware of that.

The camera had disappeared in Skye's knapsack, so as not to worry the girl anymore.

"Nope, no weird things, promise, pretty girl!" Skye chirped, settling down on the grass at the edge of the pond. He pulled a few crackers out of his bag and began tossing them in the water, watching the fish gulp down the offered food.

Forrest, still attempting to keep his arm over Lany's shoulder, turned her around to face the water too.

"I'm Forrest, by the way," he told her, smiling softly. "And the loser is Skye."

"You're a loser, jerk."

"Ignore him," Forrest chuckled. They did this often - the fake bickering - because it tended to make people laugh. They, of course, were becoming the same person, so they didn't mean any of the insults they shot at each other.

[Lany Bishop]

Lany retracted at first, unsure of Forrest’s arm over her shoulder. She drew her shoulders in, rose her palms and buckled slightly, as if she were allergic to it, but she did not pull away. She merely blinked at him, and shook her head. “I really can’t teach anything,” she insisted.

They assured her again that they weren’t planning anything weird, and what choice did she have but believe them? After all, the alternative was a crusade to get the camera back and she wasn’t in for a scuffle. Besides, she was well aware that Gestalts had super strength. The good part of having a pair for siblings was that they were quite adept at moving heavy furniture.

Lany sighed. “If you say so…”

She tucked in the long white blouse in her fists, holding the edges of them as she did when she was nervous. She hurriedly brushed her hair over her shoulder. After a moment of considering, her natural instincts took over and she decided she’d give the boys a chance and be polite.

“Sorry,” she said. “I just don’t like cameras that much…I’m Lany.”

Normally she’d tell them that it ‘was nice to meet them’, too, but she was still a tad suspicious of their intentions.

[Forrest & Skye Cheng]

If Forrest was aware of Lany's apparent discomfort, he didn't notice; the twins were sort of clueless about body language, usually just plowing forward with their chattering. "I'm sure you can," he encouraged, even if manners were something he and Skye weren't particularly keen on actually learning. Although then again, if it helped them with picking up people... Hmm.

Forrest eventually settled down next to his brother, patting the ground next to him in case Lany decided she wanted to sit too. The way she was clutching at her blouse and toying with her hair was absolutely adorable, and made both of the boys smile brightly.

"No need to apologize," Skye told her, running a hand through his blonde hair.

"S'not the first time someone didn't like us recording them," Forrest added a bit meekly, nabbing a cracker from his brother and tossing bits into the water. "We just can't help ourselves sometimes, and your ability was really neat."

"But it's a pleasure to meet you, Lany," Skye finished, offering the fish food over to the girl. "Wanna feed 'em?" Their intentions, though seemingly potentially questionable at first, were completely innocent and only meant to entertain. They just needed to tone their personalities down a bit for the somewhat shy girl.