Caught in the snow(Jonah)

[Mayu Yoshiko]

Mayu was curled up in a couch beside a heater in the library, everyone around her seemed to be almost silent. Outside it was snowing heavily, hampering her ingenious plan to go home before nightfall. The library still had hours before it closed so she figured it was time to buckle down and read this book. Again. Like she hadn't a million times before. Impulse was a thick book with six hundred and sixty-six pages; an odd number by itself. But with the content revolving around the thought of death the disturbing quality was doubled.

She pulled her soak covered feet onto the couch beside her, the snow drenched boots sitting underneath it so that no one would freeze. May was wearing a pair of thin white-wash jeans, black over-the-shoulder Emilie the Strange t-shirt, with her hair pulled up into a ponytail-bangs still covering her eyes. People seemed to be avoiding her like she was the plague, and it suited her just fine. May reached into her bag and pulled out a sucker before turning back to the book. He touch the small of my back and I shivered copper...

It took her awhile to notice a man standing beside the couch, a puzzled expression on his face. What did he want? "May I help you?" she asked, raising her hand in a greeting. It was rare for a telepath to touch another because of the intimacy of two minds merging-well that's what she read about anyway. May recognized this boy from somewhere. "Hello, Jonah." this must be the telepath she had said hi to awhile ago. May briefly touched her fingertips against his, thinking about hellos and overall nice thoughts. It was a way to be sure communication was passed over.

[Jonah King]

Jonah didn’t like the library, but he found himself spending worryingly long amounts of time in it. It came with the territory of being a bad scholar – he had to spend a lot of his time reading things so that he could catch up with the other people in his class. Yes, it did get irritating that what would be the work of half an hour for one of his classmates would always be at least twice that for him, but Jonah had long since given up complaining. If you couldn’t change something, what was the point in kicking up a fuss about it? So he kept his head down, and went to the library until it closed to try and get his work done.

He had expected it to be empty, as it usually was at this time of the evening – but, to Jonah’s surprise, somebody else was there.

He didn’t see Mayu, but he could sense her presence in the way that only one telepath can sense another. She was like a dim light in his mind, and although he couldn’t hear what she was thinking, he knew that she was there. A single, female presence. Curious (he didn’t want to look deeper into her mind to see who he was), Jonah moved further into the room and came to stand next to Mayu’s chair. He had met her a couple of times before – they had naturally been introduced to one another as fellow telepaths – but he had rarely had much cause to speak to her.

She was reading. Hoping that he could sneak away before she noticed him Jonah started to turn, missing what she said to him when she looked up – but he felt her touch against his hand like an electric shock.

It was like someone shouting into his head. He pulled his hand away sharply, then realised how anti-social that must have looked to her. Sorry,[/b] he said after a moment, using the mind-to-mind speech at which he was fairly proficient – it enabled him to speak to another telepath without having to get into their mind properly. As a result, he couldn’t hear anything they didn’t want him to hear. It also meant that he didn’t have to verbally speak: ideal, no? I’m a little out-of-practice, he admitted, the words overlayed with apology. Tentatively he reached out his hand to Mayu, offering her a small smile to go along with it.

[Mayu Yoshiko]

Mayu just blinked a couple of times, the only real expression on her face was- well her face was blank. Then it dawned on her- he was deaf, which explained why the startled and deer in the headlights expression. This was new to her; she wasn't experienced in deaf telepaths. But then again who really was? She pulled her legs under her, an offer for him to sit down without her needing to well.. Speak.

*Sorry,*

No, no, NO. A deaf telepath could not be better at sending then her! It just couldn't be allowed, shouldn't be allowed. She closed the book while offering him a shy half-smile as an answer to his thoughts. As he raised his hand to her, she offered back just her fingertips in greeting- it might have looked a little strange but it served its purpose. For someone like her she needed to limit unwelcomed contact, and she was still spinning for the accidental contact; after all she had just wanted to get his attention.
*I’m a little out-of-practice,*

She had to laugh, because if anyone was’ out-of-practice’-it was he; the telepath with horrible sending abilities, even with other telepaths. It’s okay, Jonah… I’m horrible at this myself![/b] her own thought was light and faded in and out like a bad signal. She paused, trying to find the thought wave of her new acquaintance(because unlike her brother, she didn’t count everyone she met as a friend).May scrambled to send again once she held onto the mind of the telepath; god it was easier to accidently hear thoughts! Why are you in the library anyway?

[Jonah King]

Jonah took the seat Mayu offered him, sparing a moment to wonder what she was doing with a book as large as a brick. Not being a reader himself, Jonah didn’t understand how people could enjoy being that still for such long periods of time: he had trouble sitting down for an hour during a lesson. Jonah needed to be out and about, doing something physical, and spending long hours indoors when you didn’t have to was an alien concept to him. He didn’t read books unless they were for class, and the only time he went on the Internet was to keep in contact with his parents and Mia. Being inside made him restless – there was a whole world out there, why wouldn’t he want to be out there in it?

It was a bit of relief to find out that someone else had the same problem with physical contact as he did – though Jonah hoped for Mayu’s sake that she only had the problem with other telepaths. Being unable to touch anyone at all without hearing their thoughts was very trying indeed. Jonah hadn’t held anyone’s hand for this long before, and he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.

You’re not that bad, he told her, gently moving his hand so that hers was resting gently in his palm. His eyes lost focus for a moment as he concentrated on building up the link between them. If he tried hard enough he could make a channel, like a radio wave, and – there! He had done it! It was easier for him to speak to her now (without any of the background noise of his own thoughts), and he hoped that she would find it better on her side, as well. Her mind was still very present, though, like a television on loud in the background of a conversation. Just try relaxing, instead of worrying about it. Jonah’s own control was fairly good, though not perfect. It was like running after being in bed for a week.

Why was he in the library? I have an essay to do on ‘Romeo and Juliet,’[/b] Jonah replied, sending a wave of dislike under his words. He wasn’t keen on the play, to put it mildly. Sorry I interrupted your book...

[Mayu Yoshiko]

Mayu noticed the glance the boy gave her book, as if he was judging her nerdy-ness by the size of it. Yes, Impulse was a large book by all standards but it was written in a poetry format so in actuality it was a great deal shorter. She flipped through the pages, showing him the context so he'd know she wasn't as smart as it made her appear. In fact she was the opposite of smart, most of the time. The rest of the time she was silent.

She stiffened a little when he placed his hand on hers. Boys just don't touch her. It wasn't allowed, or shouldn't be allowed anyway. And for some reason it made her think of Ash, which made her blush momentarily. Why was she thinking about Ash anyway? This guy was the total opposite of him. Mayu shook her head, turning to the guy through her bangs. Because that is how she looked at people.

My names Mayu by the way.. And Romeo and Juliet isn't that bad, I can help you on the project if you wanted. I'm a pretty good writer.. Mayu frowned, fading in and out once before she found the right wave. She still found it easier to accidentally hear someone's thoughts. Telepaths were too hard to read.


OOC:
Sorry it's so short!
-Dia

[Jonah King]

Jonah could feel Mayu’s slight discomfort as he touched her, and made sure that he wasn’t actually holding her hand. It was resting in his larger palm, and he spread his fingers slightly so that she would know that she could let go anytime she wanted to. He couldn’t help but see some of the images which ran below the surface of her thoughts, and caught a glimpse of another student – one he had seen around a few times, but never actually spoken to. Not usually one to go out of the way to talk to someone, Jonah had always been a little intimidated by the boy Mayu was thinking about – every time Jonah saw him, he was being bright and boisterious. Two things which Jonah definitely was not.

Romeo and Juliet, not that bad? There wasn’t a word in the English language for how much Jonah hated that play. He could probably express it in sign language, because he found expression emotional responses infinitely easier when he signed, but still…Jonah King and William Shakespeare were not easy bedfellows. The words made no sense, the images were confusing, and the characters did things which nobody would ever even consider doing in read life (the irony of a meta-human commenting on what was ‘normal’ was not something which occurred to Jonah). And when the teachers said things like ‘You need to read it aloud to understand it!’ he felt like getting really angry.

Mayu’s offer made Jonah smile – one of the bright, easy smiles he gave often, and freely. You mean, you understand Shakespeare? [/i] he asked her, delighted. You must be really smart!

[Mayu Yoshiko]

Mayu looked down as he shifted his hand, moving hers so she could see the size difference. Dang, it was almost as bad as between her and Ant. Which made it a pretty big size difference, something she hadn't noticed when he first showed up. Sorry, that was Ash... This is my brother.. Now this is what she was good at, transferring information through pictures and memories. She quickly let her mind reel a little and 'showed' Jonah a couple of things about Ant before laughing mentally and going back to their little conversation.

Oh, the guy thought she was smart? Not wise, really not wise. She might be a lot of things, but she really wasn't smart. Being as forgetful as she was tended to make the world a lot harder for everyone. At least she could read and write, something a lot of people tended not to do anymore. May knew that a lot of things were changing because even back in the day-waaay back in the day-people could walk around naked. Yes, yes. The greeks knew how to live back then. She turned back to Jonah and nodded, tuning in to the wave again- not having realized she had slipped back into her own brain.

Understand is a strong word.. I can get the gist at least, since no one really understands Will unless they were well- him. And I'm not smart! I'm just good with.. words..