Fountain of Youth aka Coffeehouse

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Coffee was every college kid's dream during the last few weeks of a semester. Long nights studying for midterms, to get you through exam weeks and in Adrianna's case the upcoming Winter Showcase for dance majors and minors. She'd spent countless nights staying at the university in the studio until her feet were numb and she was sure she'd bled through her ballet slippers. Ah the luxurious and glamorous life of a dancer with callused feet, oozing blisters and toenails falling off. Most people didn't understand what would drive someone to work so hard as to tear up their feet in the process, but Adrian had been dancing since she could walk. Music was in her blood, coursing through her body and bleeding out of the sores on her feet. Gross, yes, but enthralling. She had found her obsession in life and she'd put her body through hell just to reach her goals.

Despite the fact that she wasn't supposed to drink caffeine or really any kind of 'toxic sludge' that would make her fat (as a dancer), coffee was one thing Adrian had been unwilling to part with in her transformation from regular business major to kick ass dance minor and soon-to-be dance instructor. She was a basic white girl through and through, always needing that little boost of energy to get her through the week. It was going to be a long one and she knew she'd find herself going into Starbuck's at least twice a day potentially just to stay awake during normal education classes so that she could hope to have a job as an instructor by the end of college. She was halfway there, assistant instructor at Hammel was as good as it got for her at this point.

It was only Tuesday, luckily her slowest day of classes. She'd just come from dance, her feet wrapped in lots of ace bandages, her whole body felt bruised, but she was happy. The physical abuse she was putting herself through was keeping her in a state of mind that she didn't want to escape from anymore. She finally had a focus, a goal that was pushing her forward and keeping her on the right track.

As she wandered into the Velvet-Tone Coffeehouse, the place filled with a heavenly aroma, she carefully walked towards the counter to order her usual (Iced Caramel Macchiato, low-fat syrup with extra foam). After receiving her coffee, she glanced around, her book bag strapped to her back, weighing down heavily on her. She was working on a routine for Hammel's dance team, something easy enough to teach in a short amount of time, but not enough to insult their abilities. They had some great dancers from what she remembered of her time there and she wanted to showcase them all. Her eyes scanned the area, every seat full except for table with one empty seat across from a very intense looking boy. By the age she guessed him to be, she figured he was studying. The book looked sizable enough to be a text book, she hobbled over to him, trying to look like a normal person as she walked and chewed on her lower lip, worried about disturbing him.

"Hey, uh do you mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is taken and I'm struggling to walk as it is," She laughed quietly, not quite sure what reaction to expect from him.


Jayson Kline

[Jayson Kline]

His mind had been all over the place for the last few days as he was stuck on what exactly he should do. The words uttered by Rayne still rang clearly in his mind at times and they had been particularly loud that day, so he decided to go on out there with the thought of meeting new people. And studying. Lord knew he wouldn't just sit at some random spot, not without something to kill the time with in the off chance no one came up to him seeing as he sure as hell would not be making the first move himself. Unless Rayne walked in, anyway.

Before leaving his house he took a book he had to read for school (it was science. But he still wanted to read it) as he went out and made for the Velvet-tone coffeehouse. Now Jayson wasn't exactly fond of coffee, but he was okay with drinking it every now and again. Like that very moment.

He strolled up to the counter with the book in his hand and ordered a coffee which he at first didn't quite know to take. Espresso? Cappuccino? What were all those things? He wondered if it showed he had rarely drunk coffee before, but he also figured there was no better time to start than the present time! He settled for an Espresso and ended up with a small cup that reminded him of a shot glass. He'd seen enough of those to know what to do with it.

He thanked the person behind the counter and made for just about the only free table in there. Using his ability to make the book levitate over to the table he walked over with the coffee in his hand, he then sat down, put down the coffee and opened the book on the page he had read last. He'd probably read it all again once he was finished just to get in in his noggin' anyway.

That was when a voice caught his attention. As he lowered his book and looked up he noticed it belonged to a girl who was asking if she could sit there. Now, as awkward and logical as Jayson was he wouldn't answer in the most elaborate way ever, just using his ability to make the other chair slide out a bit as he offered her a smile, ''I do not mind.''

He then went back to his book.

[Adrianna Carstyn]

When the chair was pushed back without any physical contact, Adrianna's eyes lit up and she almost smiled. There was something about telekinetics that just seemed to draw her in without any conscious decision made on her part. Her ability hadn't given her any head's up or anything that she had felt, but her exhaustion could have clouded it for all she knew. Now that she was aware, she felt the familiarity of the ability itself, though she felt nothing familiar from the man that it came from. She couldn't remember him from Hammel, but surely they had been there during the same time, unless he was a transfer.

"Thank you so much," She said with relief as her bag slipped from her shoulder and thudded against the floor before she took the seat he'd offered to her. Adrianna had always been rather nosy, discreetly so, however. When he returned back to his book, she pieced together why they wouldn't have known each other. She had been the social butterfly in Hammel, on the dance team and swim team. Even if he'd been in any organizations, she figured he didn't openly communicate with everyone like she did. He was quiet, maybe a little shy.

Chewing on her lower lip, she stretched down to pull out her notebook from her bag and opened it to the diagram of dance moves she had listed for the team. She was even working on a few solos for some of the seniors that had asked for her input. They'd picked out a song and had the very basic steps already placed, but they wanted pizzazz and Adrianna had always been quite the pizzazz queen in dance.

With her focus on the dances in front of her, she found herself tapping the beat of the song that the particular solo was using. Carefully, her ability mimicked his own and she found her coffee drifting up to her mouth so that she could take a drink without stopping what she was doing. She was reminded of how Lani's ability worked. A mental set of hands that worked similarly to actual hands. This man's ability seemed fairly similar, yet less explosive and stubborn as Lani's was. Absently, she glanced up at him and wondered what he'd think if he saw her using his own ability. Hardly anyone ever pieced together what she could do.

[Jayson Kline]

The first thing he thought was that it was awesome to, out of all people have a telekinetic sit with him. Maybe she somehow knew he had the same ability. But Jayson's thoughts didn't stop there like they should have, no, he stopped reading the book and took a sip of his coffee, face contorting a bit as his mind went over possible explanations. Coffee was something he wasn't quite used to yet, sadly. Now some people would have told him to add sugar or milk to it, but Jay figured he'd best tolerate coffee if he drank it straight up. And seeing as he knew people who couldn't drink the stuff or had some sort of side effect from it he would find himself lucky to just have issues with the taste.

He sat back in his chair and played with the small coins in his pocket a bit. What kind of guy would he be if he didn't have any change on him? Sometimes he was like rainman though, being able to count just about anything in a very short amount of time, like the value of all the twenty-three coins in his pocket just by his brain telling him their size when his ability let 20 of those coins slide into his hand, to even out the workload.

Five coins on each finger were quickly stacked up and required seemingly no effort to keep in the air as he looked at the girl across from him. She'd likely notice him staring unless she was drawn into something else and was too busy to even notice anything. She hadn't even looked up when she drank the coffee due to her having (or showcasing) the same ability as Jay.

The longer he looked though, the closer he came to figuring out what her ability was, and oddly he would find himself drifting further and further from the idea it was telekinesis. He had met so little of those that it was bordering on sad, so either he was really lucky to have the chance to get to know a girl with that ability, or it was just a trick that didn't stem from that ability at all.

It occurred to him to just ask, but Jay wasn't in the right state of mind to ask anything from anyone. If people talked to him, okay, but she hadn't asked him anything after she asked if it was okay she took the empty chair across from him. So he'd just sit there like a creep, trying to figure out what her story was. And little did he know he would come damn close.

His mind went to people having the ability to mimic movement, so if there had been a time in which she saw someone else use that ability to drink anything she could have been copying it. ...but, copying powers? Was that a thing? He figured it was as he remembered her mentioning that she was struggling to walk and wasn't using telekinesis to keep her bag lifted in any way. Someone in that situation would likely use anything to lower the weight of him/herself.

So, general consensus was that she could copy at least telekinesis. And somehow that idea, though he still wasn't sure of it, seemed to be more viable than her being an actual telekinetic based on the fact she didn't use it prior despite her feet hurting. Or legs.

''Can you copy powers?'' He stated bluntly after a good while. He wasn't going to talk at first, but his curiosity got the better of him.