Splashing about ( Tag: Alex )

[Benton Barrett]

This was probably a bad idea. He didn't know how well, or how long he'd be able to swim even in an indoor pool, or a heated one. Something about the fact that it would be heated to 'normal people' temperatures made him think that he would probably freeze to death if he stayed in too long. Still, that didn't change the fact that he was damn sure not backing down from doing something he wanted to do - something 'normal' for a change. Thankfully, he'd been told going in that there would be a pool, so he did have his swimming trunks. 

Figuring it would better to be safe than sorry, he was fully clothed as he made his way to the pool, including his normal red hoodie. He wasn't about to make the walk from his room to the pool in just his trunks, otherwise he'd be starting off worse for wear. Nevertheless, once he reached the pool, he poked his head in, uncertainly. It wasn't as though he expected it to be jam-packed or anything, but if it was, he was going to wait to go wait until later. 

Thankfully, the place seemed pretty empty. 

His sneakers smacked against the tile, as he walked in, a dark green towel thrown over one shoulder. He had his phone, mostly because if the place had been empty, he'd be able to play some music to swim to. Benny wasn't an athletic swimmer - it just helped him relax, and relaxing was something he could get in to. 

At least he wasn't having a panic attack. Definitely good. 

He tugged at the hem of his hoodie, intentionally grabbing enough fabric of the shirt underneath it to pull them both off. The only other person in the room seemed preoccupied with the floating thing - which was fine with Benny. Discarding the clothes he'd already shucked, he stepped out of his untied shoes, and paused. On second thought, maybe just diving in to the water would be interrupting that guy's relaxing. He didn't want to be a dick or anything.

"Hey - do you mind if I join you?" He asked the other person, edging up to the side of the pool. "If not, that's cool, I can totally come back later. You just look pretty relaxed, and I don't want to ruin it." Besides, in this place, apparently it was a concern that startling the wrong person could start a fire, or make things fly off the walls or something. Better to not test his luck on that front and get brain-murdered because he wanted to swim.

All that was left was a pair of jeans that were already part way down his hips, revealing the bright red swimming trunks he'd decided on at some point in time. That was all that stood between him and enjoying the cool, ( hopefully not too cool ) refreshing, chlorine. And water, of course.

[Alexander Rothwell]

Tuesday? Friday? Sunday? Wednesday? What the hell is today anyway? Mentally groaning really didn't do much, but the water sure did. Alex had had a really bad encounter with an old notebook he found sitting on a bench, he really was astounded by the amount of stupid things he had been doing lately. He was slipping, that much was apparent. Forgetting about not touching certain things, asking to be sat in the newest desk that the classroom had, or even to push away memories that could easily been avoided. He had just been a bit off of his game lately, maybe it was winter rolling in. The cold always messed with his head a bit, but it was also a chance to get completely covered, which helped lessen the amount of episodes ten fold.

The roof above him seemed the stretch on forever as he floated along the pool. Water tickled at his ears and filled them occasionally, filling his mind with the sound of the pool. It was relaxing, sending himself to a nice warm and wet world, hiding away from reality under a thick layer of muffling water. Being motionless for so long, he got use to the silence, actually forgetting the fact that he had sunglasses on to guard himself from the harsh lightning of the roof. So when the boy spoke, Alex lost his glasses in the water as he turned to look toward the speaker.

Harsh light immediately stabbed into his brain and he felt himself flailing from his floating position and down into the water to find his sun glasses. His hand ran along the bottom of the pool briefly, with no luck. The teen had to come up for air, and when he did he gulped it in, in quick gasps. The brief glimpse he had caught of the boy before he went under was actually pretty pleasant, he was cute. But now he didn't even dare opening his eyes for a moment, fire traced his brain as he weakly spoke up. "Er... no, not exactly bothering me. But could you get my sunglasses?" He felt so stupid, his face getting red at the fact that he probably had and did look as stupid as he felt.

[Benton Barrett]

He winced, almost guiltily as the other boy was clearly startled by him speaking. He hadn’t exactly made a lot of noise when he came in, so it was almost to be expected – except he hadn’t. In trying to not be rude, he had inadvertently been rude in a completely different direction! The other boy went under, chasing after a pair of glasses that had fallen from his face, and Benny paused, uncertainly, as he watched him. The glasses were just a blur beneath the surface, but he could see that the other guy wasn’t coming close.

When the other boy came back up, even Benton could see the strain on his face. He didn’t sound upset, exactly – but like he genuinely needed the help he was asking for.

“Sure, give me just a second.” He replied, his mouth shaping into a teeth-showing smile. Finally, someone who didn’t seem like they might consider murdering him in his sleep. He worked the jeans off his legs, kicking them to the side with the rest of his clothes as he did. He couldn’t dive – not serious, not-water-breaking dives, at least. But he knew better than to try and get in one foot at a time. That would never work, considering he was so much hotter than the water he’d be getting in to.

So he took a breath, and just jumped in. His feet were straight down, so he didn’t kick up too much water in the other guy’s face when he went in, parting the water instead of going full-on cannonball. Once in the water, he almost regretted it, wanting to recoil at the sudden cool – but it was immersive, so he had nowhere to go but down.

He adjusted his heading just a bit, opening his eyes so he could track the sunglasses. Grabbing them, he popped back up, letting out a breath to refill his lungs with air as he did. Carefully, he reached out, and took the other boy’s hand.

“Here you go.” And, without preamble, he put the glasses directly in his grasp, so he wouldn’t have to open his eyes long enough to see where he was dangling the glasses. “Sorry for startling you.” He added, quickly.

[Alexander Rothwell]

His eyes were still glued shut, when he heard the boy respond. Well, at least he wasn't being laughed at, he might have just sank back down to the bottom if that were the case because, honestly, he had had enough confrontation for about another week or two. So, he was actually going to help, instead of calling him  wonder bread, or inking his face, that was a start. It was taking a while, but then again Alex could hear the guy taking off his pants. I swear to god if he isn't wearing swimming trunks. Stupid thought, but honestly, you could never be too sure around here.

There was a small breath, and a jump, and then a splash. Alex could feel water hitting his face as the other boy plummeted below the surface, it wasn't a lot, but it was enough to make him flinch. His eyes were already closed, so at least he didn't get water into his eyes. In no time flat, he heard the boy break the surface once more. He felt pretty stupid once again, not even wanting to open his eyes under water, but seriously, harsh school lightning and head aches just didn't mix, he learned that the hard way when he had hit puberty, and he really wasn't in for a return lesson. Though he really didn't expect the boy to grab his hand, Alex, literally not seeing that coming flinched at the contact.

He calmed down pretty quickly though, accepting the sunglasses and putting them right back on as quickly as he possibly could. The guy let out a small apology for startling him, and Alex found himself letting out a small nervous laugh. "Nah, I just freaked myself out. Forgot that these aren't glued onto my face." He explained, tapping his sun glasses. "I get migraines, need these for the light filtering goodness." He added, gently tugging his hand free from the other boys. "The name is Alex, nice to meet you!"

[Benton Barrett]

So, he forgot to give the other guy’s hand back. That happened. That wasn’t extremely awkward in the least.

Luckily, his face didn’t go too red with embarrassment – and the other guy seemed to be settling down from his apparent start. That made for a little bit of an easier transition – he kicked gently, torn somewhere between enjoying the cool water, and worrying that he would freeze in short order. He had yet to swim since this whole situation started, so it was worth the experiment anyways.

“That’s good – I was worried you might be one of those ‘sunglasses at night’ guys.” He grinned at him, mostly because he was teasing. Of course, he realized, he’d just said that the person’s frequent migraines were a good thing. “I mean – not the migraines are good. That you, don’t wear sunglasses ironically…”

He trailed off, and considered smacking himself in the head. “Sorry, I’m still getting over first-week jitters, and jitters make me a bit… rambly. Nice to meet you, though! I’m Benny.” He was glad the other guy wasn’t upset, now he just had to hope that he wasn’t going to think Benny was a bit of a spaz. He wasn’t, usually.

He let out a breath, as he continued to tread water, looking at Alex. Water distorted everything beneath it, but he’d gotten a pretty good look at him when he’d been floating. He knew the guy was fit, so he wasn’t too worried about their current water-location.

“So are the migraines part of… you know, what you do?” He asked, curiously. “I’m still kind of confused about… pretty much everything.” He added, by way of explaining his possibly personal question. How did you handle the subject of being essentially, not normal? It had to be a bit weird, right?

[Alexander Rothwell]

The other boy was pretty close, Alex registered that fact after he opened his eyes. But, the most important thing was that he had his sunglasses back, and he could once again escape the harsh white lights of the pool roof. Now that he could see properly again, Alex caught himself staring at the boy in front of him. There was an odd look about him, like the water might end up biting him or something, but Alex shrugged that off. Water didn't hold much of anything, so it was a nice way to relax without worrying about memories invading his mind.

When the guy spoke, he offered out a little joke. That was a pleasant surprise, from the weird encounters he had been having this past week. A smile traced the teen's own lips as he thought about it, Wow, I might actually look like that to other people. Quickly, the guy across from him retracted his words and tried to explain, to make something that hadn't been offensive seem inoffensive. That reminded Alex of himself, on several different adventures. "Ha. No worries. I don't mind. First week jitters got me too when I first came here." Sure, he looked young, but not thirteen young. He was silly, but Alex got that way too sometimes.

Benny watched him for the tiniest bit, and spoke up again. This time it was a question about his abilities. A small smile crossed Alex's lips, he could totally sympathize with this guy and how new everything was to him. When he first got here, things happened like a whirlwind. The teem got picked away from the first two good fosters he had had in years and was taken cross country, and then put in a school full of people that he didn't know. "Retrocogition. I like.. get memories from people or things if I touch them, and can't push it away. I am really bad with antiques." He explained, happy to help the new guy.

[Benton Barrett]

The other guy actually smiled at his little unintentional faux-pas joke... he hadn't meant to be kind of rude, but sometimes it just happened. Side effect of trying to talk too quickly, or, as he said, rambling a bit too much. Still, he explained that first week jitters had hit him, too, so it wasn't out of the ordinary for people to feel that way. He rubbed the back of his head, gently, before returning his hand to the water, to help keep him afloat. 

"Then I'm glad I'm not alone, at least. Apparently manifesting at fifteen is late, which makes me wonder what exactly I missed out on for two years." He shook his head, though, because ultimately, it was not anything he was going to learn. Still, it had to be a little easier, right? If you went when you were still very young, before high school, before you had firm roots to grow attached to? He didn't know, and he certainly couldn't assume. It might be even harder, because of the sudden loss of one's folks.

He looked suitably impressed, at the explanation. 

"That's... pretty boss. You must be an ace on history tests, huh?" He grinned, mostly because it was a bad joke - even if it was rooted in possibility. Of course... if it hurt, that badly? That had to be a horrible cost. Benny knew what that was like, to a point - though in reverse. To not be able to touch people or things, because you might accidentally hurt yourself with images you couldn't control?

"Though... it must be hard. I can't imagine what it must be like, having to fight off other people's memories all the time." He wondered, vaguely, out loud. "Or finding out some stuff that's best not knowing." He knew that most people viewed secrets as a bad thing - and usually, they were. Or at least, could be. But sometimes they were necessary, if a bit painful. 

"My weirdness is... like, when I get cold, or freak out or whatever, I start sucking the heat out of stuff." And people. Though he would leave that unsaid - he didn't want to hurt anyone. So it shouldn't count, right? He volunteered mostly because it wouldn't be fair to just ask and then leave his own secret unspoken, despite how much he'd rather ignore his own power.

"So have you been at Hammel long?" He asked, as he shifted his mass so he could lay on his back, stretching out much as Alex had been when he first arrived.

[Alexander Rothwell]

The guy floating across from him really did seem nervous, he felt kind of bad actually. Being dumped off with a bunch of strange kids, in a strange place, with a strange new ability wasn't the best thing that could ever happen to your childhood. Sure, sometimes you lucked out, and ended up with super strength, or something more easy to live with. But when you were someone like Alex, you got the shortest straw on many occasions. The latest and most prevalent short straw being his own ability. Retrocognition, super painful and super invasive power. Sure, it could be cool from time to time, on the rare occasion he didn't get a headache, he could actually enjoy seeing a scene from the past, feeling the emotion. But there were just some things about people that you don't want to know, and when there is a danger of knowing that certain something, every time you touch someone, it gets a little old.


A cheesy joke passed out from benny's lips one more, and Alex gave a half smile as, yet again, he immediately rebounded on his words. "Don't worry about it. Sure, I get headaches a lot, but I've been like that since I was thirteen, it gets easier, sort of." He guessed that he should tag the 'sort of' on the end, because some abilities side affects never seemed to go away. Like those winged dudes weak bone structure, you couldn't exactly brush that off.

When benny explained his ability, Alex raised an eyebrow. He'd never heard that one before, but when it came to uniqueness, that was pretty common in Hammel, especially with so many metas to talk to, it was sort of insane. "Oh cool. You must either love, or hate hot tubs then, right? And I've been here for.. hmm.. like around three years? Yeah, that sounds about right. I'm sixteen, been here since thirteen!"

He could tell that the other kid was probably either liking the conversation, or was making up for the sunglasses mishap, which wasn't really Benny's fault in the first place. Relaxing wasn't the best thing to do while talking, but it did keep him focused on something, at least. "This might sound weird, but what's the day today?"

[Benton Barrett]

He couldn't imagine being plagued like that. His own detriments were more or less not for him, persay, but for those near him. If he got headaches to go with it? He probably wouldn't have gotten very far with it. 

"I've never been in one since I got my power, but I think I'd probably love it." He grinned, thoughtfully. Constant hot water being introduced would keep his powers at bay. But of course, once he got out? Oh, that would suck. Either way, he'd be willing to try it at least once. After all, this particular experiment seemed to be going well enough. He looked over at the other boy, who explained he was a year older than he was. He'd been here for three years. How rough did that get? 

"If you've been in this place for three years, I guess it's not so bad, then." He said, his voice surprisingly even. It wasn't a dig at the other guy - more, it was a relief. He'd been worried about being able to handle this place. If someone else had done it, he could do it, too. It might just take a little ( a lot ) getting used to.

The air on his now-exposed wet skin was starting to feel moderately uncomfortable. His torso, just above the water, was cooling with every passing second. He let out a bit of a sigh, trying to dip deeper into the water while remaining floating. It wasn't working very well. If his teeth started chattering, it was a good sign to get out before he started freezing the pool. 

"Today?" He took a second. "Saturday." He replied, softly, tilting his head to look at him. Which, of course, did nothing good - he was going to get water in one eye this way. "Why do you ask?" He couldn't help but ask - that was kind of a weird question, considering. But if that was as weird as Alex got? He still won the 'most normal person at this school' award. 

Sighing, he went vertical again, so he could pay attention without getting water anywhere he didn't want to - and so he could get a majority of him back under the water where it wasn't so bad. 

"Any survival secrets you have for us newbies?" He asked, grinning at him. He liked having a conversation with someone that didn't involve threats, or someone who had to use their powers to keep him calm. This was a step in the right direction, that was for sure.