The Odd One Out [Judah]

[Xeona Hashimoto]

Xeona was sitting at the side of the student lounge, watching out over the somewhat noisy crowd. Everyone seemed to have a pal to play pinball with, fight over the remote together, and stuff like that.

But Xeona wasn't doing any of that. He was just the new guy, sitting awkwardly to the side, and just watching. Normally, he would get on his feet, walk into the crowd and ask if he could join in with someone. This time, however, Xeona for the first time felt uncomfortable. He hadn't seen anyone like him whatsoever. He felt lonley, and he hated it.

He reached for his bag and pulled out his Asus laptop. At least he could kill some time and loneliness by playing some video games. When he pressed the power button, the battery indicator flashed red. "Great." he thought sarcasticlly. "Just what I needed." He reached down into his bag once again and pulled out the power cord. Seeing that there were no power outline nearby, he headed for the closest one, right across the room.

Xeona took the long way around the crowd, as walking straight through probably would cause him to walk straight into someone. As he walked around, however, he bumped into someone and dropped the power cord. Still being annoyed by being alone, he bent down, picked up his power cord, then turned around and said "Hey, are you going to say sorry or what?" in a spiteful voice. 

[Judah Linn]

The day was the usual. Judah bombed another assignment, a good number of his pens had been borrowed (and then later, stolen), and he felt as if he was a piece of paper that had been crumpled up and doused in water. Exhausted. Worn out. The Wednesday wasn't over yet though. After class, he would always dash to his dormitory to grab a few belongings and then head to the student lounge. The only thing relatively different today was that a few people stood outside and talked, the sounds of the pinball machines' start springs being released and people arguing over the remote control for the single television, and the door kept opening and closing.

The small room wasn't always lively with people. Sometimes Judah had the space all to himself. This was something he liked. He could play Civilization 5 in peace. He supposed that was not at all what he was going to be doing today. Judah would likely occupy the chair in the far back of the room. He could draw. Because he watched so much anime, the style of drawing had rubbed off on him. That alone could keep him busy; it certainly keeps him busy in math class. Good thing he'd brought along his last pen. Maybe he could scrounge up a couple sheets of loose-leaf. 

Judah passed through the door and slowly entered the room, extending his neck to see if that back corner was open. Sure enough, it was. He sighed in relief, happy he didn't have to hang around in the crowds. He went around a clique, a scumbag attempting to hit on one of the members of this clique, and a couple of younger boys playing what appeared to be Texas Hold 'Em on the floor. Just when he thought all was going well, he rammed into another walking being. The male he'd run into dropped his power cord, it seemed, and before Judah could be polite and pick it up, he had already done so. Then he attacked Judah, which made his hands flare at the fingertips. Pyrokinesis, since Judah could control the power through mind and hand, could be impulsive. He immediately extinguished the flames though.

"Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. ...Don't have to get pissy over a little accident. I didn't hurt you." Judah narrowed his dark eyes at the opposition, annoyed that the guy in front of him had gotten so angry for something so stupid and little. Judah then pulled back, back into silence and introversion, and headed over to the space he had taken note of before. He pulled over a chair from one of the back tables and sat, digging around in his backpack for a spare piece of paper. Now where were those damn extra pieces? Even a detention slip would suffice. Something, anything to keep him busy. Anything to keep him from having to socialize.

[Xeona Hashimoto]

Xeona was pretty surprised when he saw the small flames at the other male's fingertips. He was most likely also a pyrokinetic in training, like Xeona. He got happy for a second, knowing that there was someone like him here.

When he had thought about that for a little while, another thought came to mind. The other man was probably pissed of at Xeona for being such a jerk. He couldn't really have helped it, his temper just got the best of him.

After thinking about his actions for a little while, he decided that it was probably best if he apologized to the other guy. After gaining some courage, Xeona walked up to him and said: "Hey... I'm sorry for before. I was just really annoyed about something, and I let my feelings take over."

[Judah Linn]

The guy approached him again a couple minutes later. By then, Judah had taken to drawing on a Starbucks napkin he'd dug out from the very bottom of his backpack. Just thinking about Starbucks made him want a coffee to perk himself up. Specifically, a Venti cappuccino with extra espresso. Mm. Caffeine. The stuff made him aggressive, but it at least did it's job. It kept him awake. It appeared he had already began to draw on this one. Perhaps he had gotten through half a picture of... Sheldon Cooper? It looked like Sheldon Cooper. Eh. Maybe it would be Sheldon Cooper anyways. He wrote BAZINGA! at the bottom of the napkin as the guy spoke to him. Hm. Should Judah forgive? Well, why not? What did he have to win or lose here? Nothing. Nothing at all.

"It's fine. I get like that too. I feel like I lot of my personality comes from the power I possess. That's fine. I'm fine with that," He shrugged his shoulders. His aggressiveness, his competitiveness, his occasional over-confident but otherwise timid personality? It could all be explained by his pyrokinetic powers. Someone really had to engage him, or ignite him, to get anything out of him. Everybody ignored him, thus making him introverted and antisocial. "It's a mental thing too, pyrokinesis. It comes and goes with emotions too." 

Pyrokinesis didn't seem to be the lot of the population at Hammel. There are a lot of kinetics, but he hadn't met very many pyrokinetics. It bugged him. It felt like nobody shared his struggle. "You got a name?" Judah hadn't yet lifted his eyes from the drawing. He was attempting to connect the lines of the face. Now where did this all fit? Instead of looking like Sheldon Cooper, it was beginning to look more like Simon Cowell. Weird. Maybe a cross between the two. Eventually something would have to work out. 

[Xeona Hashimoto]

Xeona's attention switched between the man and his drawings. He had talent, that much could be said. "I'm Xeona. And you?" he responded. When the other man had responded, Xeona said "I presume that you're also a pyrokinetic. Not a lot around here..."

He took a seat fairly close to a power outline and plugged in his laptop. After it had booted up, he launched Steam, to choose a game. While it loaded, he also launched Chrome, to check reddit, hoping that he would find something of interest.. Most of the front page was from boring subreddits like /r/politics, so Xeona closed the browser.

When Steam was up and running, everything that was left to do was to choose a game. He thought about what game to play for a bit, and then decided to play on his Civilization V save. He started the game, and then chose the first save on the list, and started playing.

[Judah Linn]

Xeona? That was literally the most uncommon name he had ever heard. Judah had lived in Chicago. Everyone had that sort of... Americanized name. Phillip, Daniel, Alex, Adam, Jacob - those kinds of names. He didn't have a common name either, but Xeona? Damn.

"Judah... Judah Linn. --Is that Civilization five?" He had heard the unmistakable start up sound effect. Judah seemed to meet people through Civilization V. It was how he'd met Walther - the sweetest little German kid. In the same room. Except he had been playing first, and the room had been far quieter. Judah packed up his belongings, pens into his backpack and drawn-on napkin shoved deep into his pants pocket. He joined Xeona on the opposite side of the table.

"Who do you play as?" Walther had told him off for his choices. Wu Zetian for domination wasn't the best, he knew. Especially not on deity. He would have done better just using Venice, as bad as Venice could be in deity. ...Judah hates deity. "And your playing level?"

[Xeona Hashimoto]

Xeona was pleasantly surprised that Judah also liked Cilivization V. This meant that they shared a common interest, and that's a good start. "Oh, do you like it too? Judah, was it?" Xeona took a quick peek at his screen to take a look at his empire, and was greeted with his capital, Kyoto, currently being under attack by America. "Can't that Washington just keep it to himself??" he thought to himself before lifting his head from his screen again. "Right now, I'm playing as my home country, Japan. It's also a little personal favourite of mine... You have to get all those domination victories from somewhere, right?"

Truth be told, he didn't always like to go for a domination victory, but the AI always pushed him to making something drastic, thus making the AI go against him even harder. This seemed to be the case yet again, even though he wanted to go for a Space Race victory... "Heh, I just picked up the game a few months ago... I don't play that high, only on Warlord..." Xeona turned his computer so that it faced Judah, showing the small massacre America was currently leading. "In case you were wondering, I'm playing with four civilisations. There's England, India and as you can see here, America and Japan."

"I take it as you play the game yourself?" That was almost given. Either that or he was lacking the money to buy it. Oh well. Couldn't hurt to ask.

[Judah Linn]

"Yeah, it's Judah. I have my favorite civilizations, though. --I've never met anybody that plays Japan. I prefer Venice or China for domination. Sometimes Rome or... ever the Huns are good for domination," Why play as America? He didn't see the point of playing as America and George Washington. The Americans didn't get as much of advantage in the game, in his personal opinion. Walther didn't approve of his choice of China with Wu Zetian, but too bad. Wu Zetian could easy dominate on Deity. 

He didn't play too much either. Not enough to perfect his strategies. He was too busy trying to catch back up in Trig and practicing his to-be-damned power. His power was one of the few reasons he couldn't graduate at nineteen years old. Being a senior sucked so bad when you were supposed to be out. "I don't play all too much anymore. I've got my excuses," He shrugged his shoulders. He hoped nobody would bitch about him being older than the cut in yearbooks. Not that he wanted a yearbook anyways. Who was he trying to remember? Nobody from this damned school was worth remembering. Maybe Walther. Maybe this kid. ...Damn, I need to meet people my age. 

"Struggling with the AIs? On Warlord, the AIs are nothing. I could swear that in Deity, the AIs are practically impossible to beat. I'm still not getting at my military victory in deity because of that. I might switch to Venice for it, though. Maybe it will help." Judah paused as he examined the screen. The Americans were attacking. Lovely. He bet they wouldn't win though. "How old are you, Xeo? ..Is that cool if I call you that?"

[Xeona Hashimoto]

So Judah had played, and at the highest difficulty at that. Xeona had tried Diety once, and got crushed. It was quite impressing, but the fact that he didn't play anymore left him wondering. He said that he had reasons, but what reasons? Xeona probably wasn't the person to try to find out, either.

"The struggle isn't that the AI is hard to beat. Japan's combat advantages takes them easily, and as you said, I'm just on Warlord. The struggle is that the AI is all in your face with their units, and doesn't let me win any other way than domination..." Xeona turned the laptop back to face him, and sent his samurai to finish off Washington's Longswordsmen. "I hope Washington didn't like those units. It didn't look like it, anyway. I guess he did like everyone else, and underestimated Japan."

Judah's next question wasn't really... expected. Nevertheless, Xeona at least wanted to be fairly polite from here on out. "Well, if you need to know, I'm fourteen. And yes, it's ok to call me Xeo." That was what almost everyone called him anyways. He couldn't really figure out why, though. It probably had something to do with laziness, but did two letters really make that big of a difference? ...Whatever floats their boats.

"So... Where are you from?" Well, that sounded way more awkward than it should have. Xeona really wanted to keep this conversation going, but couldn't come up with any good subjects. He gave his laptop another peek, and it showed Washingron's dialogue screen, saying that he never wanted war, but he has to defend himself. Xeona didn't say a thing, instead staying silent and turned the screen to Judah once again.

[Judah Linn]

"Right. It's not that they are hard to beat, it's just that you can't do anything but domination," He sighed gently and watched his Japanese units attack George Washington's American units. George Washington's troops were struggling and retreating. Pathetic. "It's why I don't use the Americans. Kind of ridiculous, in my opinion. I'd much rather play as Sweden!" 

"I'm nineteen. Aren't you the funniest little freshie-man?" He smirked and punched Xeona's arm. Where was he from? Obviously he was from the US. He hadn't lived many places. All in Illinois. He didn't have a distinguishable accent from the south or the north - it was all flat. He wouldn't doubt Xeona was from Japanese descent. He had the appearance, and he said his home country was Japan earlier. Maybe he had been born in Japan and moved to the US. Or he was exchange. That would be cool, too. He wished he had lived in another country like Japan. "Basically, Chicago. And the suburbs around Chicago. That's about it. Did you live in Japan? You said home country." 

Xeona hadn't told him of his power yet. Judah had told Xeona of his power very, very clearly. Pyrokinesis. He'd told about how it makes him act on occasion. Xeona seemed like the type who had a mental power. He was quite collected when you broke it down. "What do you do? ..I mean, what's your power?"

[Xeona Hashimoto]

Nineteen? Wasn't that a bit old for still being in high school? And couldn't he have come up with something better than "funniest little freshie-man"? Xeona managed to keep a straight face and answered Judah's next question. "Actually... I was born in Japan, and later on moved to the U.S. So I guess that you can still say that I am Japanese..."

"Didn't I tell you before, Judah-san?" He let out a small chuckle. At least he could still mock Judah back. "Ah well. I can say it again. I'm also a pyrokinetic, Judah." He created a small flame above his left index finger, just for show. After he had put it out, he spoke again. "At least that makes it two of us. I haven't seen a lot of other pyrokinetics around here..." He eyed his computer once again. His samurai had reached one of Washington's scattered units, that also happened to be the strongest, and started slicing him down. "That's what you get, Washington."

"I saw your drawing earlier, by the way. It was really good, I can say that much."

[Judah Linn]

"Don't mock me. Anyways, you're lucky that you are from another country. Chicago wasn't the most fun place to live," He grumbled, betting Japan was a whole lot of fun to live in. He wondered what part of Japan he had lived in. Judah wasn't the best with geography, but he knew of a couple places in Japan. Mainly because of his secret love for Japanese anime. 

Judah didn't remember a whole lot about people. He has short attention on occasion. He blamed his forgetfulness on that, even if he knew that Xeona had not mentioned his power. Not once. "Is it a bitch for you too, pyrokinesis? You seem to have it down pretty well. ...It's the reason i'm still stuck in this shitty school," He muttered the last bit underneath his breath. "Apparently there are only seven pyrokinetics registered to Hammel. Good luck finding them all if I actually manage to walk this year," When Judah said "walk" he meant graduate. He hoped to graduate the 2013-2014 year. He had to. He'd been in this place for far too long. 

"Gee, thanks. Art isn't my first. I'm actually an athlete. I played junior varsity lacrosse and cross country. Yeah. It's not exactly my strength." He drew the napkin back out of his pocket and examined his pictures. He saw Sheldon Cooper in it.. sort of. "I do a lot of cartooning... because.. why not, I guess." Judah chuckled, quickly flipping his hair out of his dark eyes. 

[Xeona Hashimoto]

"Well, this funny little freshie had some more planned, but I'll try to resist the impulse." "Game, set and match, Xeona." He probably had to cut it out, though, because things wouldn't end pretty if this was pressed any further. Was Judah jealous or something? Xeona couldn't put his finger on it, but something made him feel like it.

"The worst about it is probably the hot temper. I'm like an alarm clock, going mad every once in a while until you get smacked down a table, or someone tries pushing the right buttons to calm you down. I've tried having it under control during recent years, but..." He thought back to moments before this conversation, when he went off at Judah for seemingly no reason at all. "You've seen how that has been progressing." He lit up a small flame in front of himself and looked at it for a little while. He'd never understood why, but fire always calmed him down in some way. He extinguished it again and said: "Sorry about that."

Xeona let the thought of how many pyrokinetics there were here at Hammel sink in for a bit. If there were only seven of them here, including himself and Judah, it meant that there where five others around here somewhere. "The odds are certainley not in my favor... He gazed away towards the big crowd of students, and started thinking if any potential friend could be in there somewhere. But for now, he turned back to Judah.

[Judah Linn]

"Mm. The temper problem is shit. You end up mouthing off at teachers and the whole lot. Probably the reason I'm outcast," He had noticed that Xeona wasn't in the best of control of this temper. Judah had learned to swallow it at some point, but it was never going to be perfect. He always ended up angry for some reason. Well, not always. Most of the time. Judah would end up having to calm himself down after the simplest conversations. "You get frustrated easily? I do. It's the worst part." Frustration effected Judah more than his aggressive temper. He was so quick to get frustrated by the littlest things and then, when he couldn't get it right still, he completely gave up. That was the situation in math at the moment. Soon, Ms Rivera would insist on helping him. He was going to flunk. Again. No way was that happening.

Judah understood this kid's dilemma way too well. Maybe this kid would like Walther. Walther was the quiet type, though, so ...maybe not. He wasn't sure. Maybe they have already met. He wouldn't ask. Xeona seemed almost shocked at the number of Pyrokinetics in the school. Yep, seven! Only seven. "You probably won't meet any of them. I've only met one other personally. And that's you."

[Xeona Hashimoto]

"Don't even get me started on the frustration. Honestly, if I had a dollar for every time I've gotten frustrated over the smallest of things... Well, I don't know what I'd do with that much money. Probably spend it on an anger management course." Sometimes everything just felt like it was against him. His parents, friends, teachers, you name it. It felt like no one could understand him, how he felt, how he was feeling. Everything was just another part in his hotheaded mind. He was always quick to decide things, and to stick to it. But with some people, things just... worked. Judah seemed like one of those guys. He seemed to understand, to feel some kind of struggle as well. Xeona had the feeling that they could get along well.

"Do you usually get caught up in something? Like, you do one thing, and nothing else until that one thing is done. Happens to me all the time. It's a double-edge sword, really." Winning a Civ V game, doing homework, winning a sport. Sometimes Xeona just did one thin, and didn't stop until he had succeeded. Failing or quitting just made him mad. Sometimes it happened, sometimes it didn't. But if he was dead set on something, he would let nothing stand in his way.