Something New {OPEN

[Exie Yates]

Okay. She could do this. It's not like it was particularly hard or anything...Anybody could do it really. There was, quite literally, nothing to it. There was no reason for her not to do it really. Heading down from her dorm room, a determined look on her face, she headed towards the student lounge. While Exie was a very easy going and smiley, that was while she was doing things that had a purpose. This... This was nothing.

Exie Yates was going to attempt to just relax and do nothing. Adjusting her beanie, she looked like a soldier reading herself for war. She was armed with her ipod to keep herself entertained and stop her from getting up and trying to do stuff. She could and would be a normal teenager and go brain dead playing on the hand held device or by just chatting and doing nothing.

She. Could. Do it. Or so she told herself. About two minutes into her relaxing, she was beginning to question how time could ever go by so slowly and how in the world people actually considered this a fun activity. She got up and tried to figure out something else interesting to find, perhaps... Hmm, an abandoned book. That might be fun? Reading had a purpose... but at least she was still relaxing and reading for fun? Okay. She sighed, flipping through the pages, checking the time again, "Questo è inutile..."* She mumbled, well aware that having no point to doing something was the point. A point wasted on her. She had to look miserable.

*this is pointless...

[Ashley Shaw]

Eventually, searching for mountains of paper and pencils got tedious. Extraordinarily. Impossibly. Tedious. However, to one student, it was something to do, something to pass the time and probably something to do which would anger the school's paper budget. If it had one, that was. You could never tell with a school like Hammel. In fact, there was nothing predictable about it. Different people, different places, you could step on a slug and it turns out to be a student who could shape shift.
Ashley laughed to himself as he looked in the cupboards, piling out folders and other junk, then shoving it back in when there was nothing to draw on. He stood upright and heaved a sigh, folding his arms and glancing back and forth.

find something, idiot. I'm gettin' tired here he thought to himself. It was like a mini argument inside his head.
He looked over to his bag, picking it up and unzipping it. That yielded no results either.
Ashley was dieing for something to do… anything at all, whether that be paper to draw on or… Ashley turned his head and noticed a girl sitting there in the corner. She looked like she was being strangled by a python, murmuring under her breath. She looked depressed… extremely depressed. Ashley looked around, shuffling over very silently. Being a sufferer from Depression (you really couldn't tell) himself, he could probably do something. But his ideas were always probably wrong.
It was him being either a complete idiot, or he had watched to much ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ over the weekend. After a few minutes of inching to the side like a partially paralysed crab, he sat down next to the girl, still muttering some kind of foreign language. He stretched over slowly to see what she was reading.
A book, hu? No wonder she looked depressed. Books generally were depressing, which made them good. He paused. He wondered if she’d ever read ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’? Bloody brilliant, he thought.

Ashley looked around for something to do, coming to the conclusion that poking her would be a good introduction. He did so, prodding her arm to get her attention.

“Hey,” he whispered, not exactly sure why he was, “I’m Ashley Shaw, and I just wanted to ask; why’d you look so… depressed?”
Ashley then realised what a jerk he sounded like. He rolled his eyes to himself. Well done, superman, well freaking done.

[Exie Yates]

Exie had finally gotten into the book she'd found, although the book itself was pretty stupid. Who cared about this stupid girl? Why was the whole school so obsessed with her if she really wasn't anything out of the ordinary? And...Seriously? This vampire freak had admitted to watching her in her sleep for awhile. The girl failed to grasp what was so romantic about a stalker that had to constantly keep himself from killing the girl. That was creepy. The next chapter should've been her getting a restraining order and moving somewhere he could...Wait, seriously? He glittered? Yeah. No wonder this book was abandoned. It was ridiculous.

She was oddly engrossed in criticizing what she had so lovingly dubbed a disgrace to the literary world. The boy could've come tap dancing up to her and she wouldn't have noticed a thing. Not. A. Thing. As she continued to curse the book in Italian under her breath, she flipped a page and then jumped as she heard a whisper near her. A hand flew up to her chest and she turned to see the boy. Immediately she felt her cheeks heat up as she surely turned five different shades of red.

Why was he whispering? She ducked her head down, the tiniest bit embarrassed thanks to her stupid blushing. Straightening up back to her usual militarily straight posture, and willing the blush away, she looked back towards the stranger. No. Not stranger, he'd given her his name. Ashley, well that was an interesting name for a boy. Although, Exie was a rather bizarre name in general.

She reached out her hand for a handshake like she'd been instructed to do all her life, "I'm Exie, Exie Yates and..." Why was she so depressed looking? Ah jeez. "I... I'm not depressed so much as frustrated." She admitted, cursing herself as she felt her cheeks heat up a little once more. Well, this was going to sound absolutely ridiculous. Best to get it over with, she sighed and grinned. "I-I was trying to relax? I... I don't usually do that at home. Father says there's nothing productive about that..." And now she just looked like some sort of robot or something. Fun.

[Ashley Shaw]

Ashley jumped in unison with the girl, her swift movements caught him by surprise. He looked at the top of the page.
Twilight. Why on Earth would anyone pick up Twilight. He wanted to gag, but it seemed like the girl had been cursing at the book, so that made it all better.
He shook the shock out of him, noticing the girl, her face bright red. And that meant bright red. They were like cherries in the spring. He tried not to blush in return, since she’d caught him unaware too.
She shifted her posture in an unnatural way, it was like she had been programmed to do so. It made Ashley a little uncomfortable about how he was sitting, but he wasn’t to bothered about correcting his stance now. It would look like he had copied her, and that could freak her out a little bit, and right now wasn’t the time to be creeping people out.
The girl held out her hand, and Ashley took it in a greeting. That was… formal. It was like they were at a conference meeting or something, and Ashley certainly didn’t like those kind of things. They made him feel uncomfortable.

"I'm Exie, Exie Yates and..."
The girl pause. Exie. Exie Pexie? Oh geez that sounded bad. Perhaps he should not mention that. He would get his ass kicked other wise. He decided to keep the funny nicknames locked in his head, trying not to blurt them out.

“I‘m... I'm not depressed so much as frustrated." Exie completed her sentence, stammering at the beginning. Ashley probably knew why she was frustrated… she was reading Twilight? How could she not be frustrated! It was the most worthless piece of garbage on the face of the sphere-shaped globe! (And perhaps in the Universe).
Exie went on to explain what she was trying to do, and touched on her family a little. Ashley’s gaze dropped. He wished he had some connection with his family. They’d all just abandoned him, kicked him out due to being a ‘freak’. he tried not to show his anxiety, and instead tried to distract himself from his thoughts.

“You can’t try to relax, Exie. Relaxing is something that comes naturally,” he said, gently take the book from her hands, closing it and setting it down on the chair beside him.

“And what is not productive about relaxing? Relaxing releases stress and helps you to calm down,” Ashley realised how much like a counsellor he sounded. Who was he to talk about relaxing when he was all nervous and paranoid. He wasn’t in the right disposition to be talking like that.
He cursed under his breath, trying to regain some steadiness.

[Exie Yates]

Oi. She was sure she hadn't felt this stupid since one of her first interactions at Hammel. The sir and ma'am sandwiches were still very present in her vocabulary and had earned her many funny looks from her teachers. It wasn't her fault, she was raised to address adults that way. Just as she was raised to be presentable and proper in the public eye. Sure, the stick straight posture wasn't as comfortable as her previous position, but it was all about looking and being professional.

She couldn't help but relax the tiniest bit and chuckle after giving him her name though. "It's silly, isn't it? I've been given so many odd nicknames to match it too back home. My father said it was a strong name..." At least she never had to worry about sitting in class and asking about which Exie they meant to call on, there never was another Exie after all.

The clutz of a girl put up no fight against the boy when he moved to take her book. She really couldn't see how anybody would willingly fight over keeping that piece of trash. The only reason she'd even remotely enjoyed reading the 'book' was because of all the ways she could tease it. Resisting the urge to groan at his, 'it comes naturally' line, the brunette felt like this whole doing nothing thing was going to be very very difficult for her. What if her parents called and asked her what she was doing one of these times and she said nothing? They weren't paying for this school for her to be doing nothing...

Ah, and what lovely advice that sounded like. Flashing him another smile, she shook her head, "My father is a Brigadier General in the Air Force. The man that raised me to call him sir would never find that as a good enough excuse to do nothing." She could almost hear him listing off all of the activities she could be doing to busy herself instead.

Her tired eyes didn't miss the change in expression on the boy and she couldn't help but ask, "Forgive me if I'm overstepping at all...But are you alright?" His cursing didn't give her too much optimism either. Was it because she was so difficult, or was it something else?

[Ashley Shaw]

He couldn’t afford to ignore everything Exie said, he had way to many places to fill when it came to relations. It was just him, Ant and Mayu at the moment. He had no intention of losing a number three in the group.
That was what Ashley was like, he hated to be left out full stop. He spent most of his time faffing around and making a fool of himself just so he’d get noticed by even slightest. Adding the fact that he killed a few of his friends didn’t go down to well with him, or his family, or the family of those who died. For the most part, it seemed to be something he kept jumping back on to, and he couldn’t let go of it no matter how hard he tried.

Ashley listened to her talk, wondering if she liked her parents. She talked about her father. Brigadier General, hu? Well, a military girl? That was interesting. Ashley wasn’t to fond of the military, but it seemed to be the only way to get noticed. He might try for it, but he was a meta-human. He’d be denied at the first call. He probably had a criminal record for all he knew. Charged with multiple successful murders and multiple attempted murders, knowing the corrupt system.

He looked back up when she mentioned her father not finding relaxation a good excuse for doing nothing. Well, some people were just like that. They had things to do and so made their children busy to keep them busy too. That was a cycle that would be hard to brake. He wondered if that was the whole point.

"Forgive me if I'm overstepping at all...but are you alright?" Exie asked, grabbing Ashley’s attention. He shook his head and took a deep breath, running his mind clear of all those unpleasant thoughts he had lived with for years.

“I’m…I’m fine, Exie. Just a little memory, that’s all,” Ashley replied, sitting up again, trying to lighten the mood between them. He always carried a heavy atmosphere, it was uncomfortable, even for him. It was like constantly being under a black cloud of depression.
Ah bugger it all, he thought to himself, It’s coming back again. Ashley was referring to the anxiety to himself. He should see someone about this sickness, it was beginning to slow him down.

“So, do you plan on moving away from your father once you are old enough?” he asked, interested about her family.

[Exie Yates]

She was talking too much, wasn't she? That'd be a new one actually. Never in her life had the girl been told she talked too much. It was either that she was too formal, too busy, too much of other things really. Exie was going to blame it on the fact that she was out of her element at the moment, even more so thanks to her talking to a boy. ..

Father had never allowed boys to be around the house, the only time she'd ever really gotten the chance to hang out with them was during school hours and even then the contact was pretty limited. Sure, she'd been getting more and more used to things, she was in the co-ed dorms after all, and she had been going to Hammel since she was sixteen. This was alright, at least he wasn't being like some of the other boys. Others had flirted with her, and it was the most flustering and uncomfortable experience of her life.

However, she wasn't concerned with her problems at the moment, it seemed that Ashley had something on his mind. Something...He didn't want to talk about. Well, she wasn't about to push her boundaries, so she just gave a comforting smile and nodded, "Alright then." Oh, more talk about her family now? Well, she hadn't heard anybody so interested before.

Tapping her pointer finger on her lower lip as she thought, she simply shrugged after a moment. "Actually, I'm not really sure. I might? But I don't know where I would go. Father thinks that by the time I'm out they'll allow meta-humans in and would like me to join the Force..." One look at Exie and anybody else could see what her father was apparently blind to- she didn't look the part. Not at all.

[Ashley Shaw]

“Your father wants you to join the army? Dang, that’s tough,” Ashley responded, cheering up slightly. He had a knack for getting out -and in- depressions. It made him a hard person to understand, and yet he never seemed to think of himself that way. He wondered what her father was like face to face. Ha, he’d probably treat Ashley like he was on a two hour military training course, and like he needed any more training than he already put himself through.
He didn’t think that Exie would suit the army, she was much to pretty, and she seemed to just not… fit in with the army crowd.

Ashley looked around, and then back at her. Her father seemed to be…well, not that much of a nice guy. Anyway, Exie must have been getting annoyed of talking about herself, that’s all they had been talking about.
Ashley wondered if he should spout some trivia about himself, although she might get annoyed at that too. Ashley sat and pondered on the question for little over a second. Should he, should he not. The question was also asking what there was to say about himself. Artistic, science wizz... that was pretty much it at the moment. Friends with a shape shifter, been here for four years, two siblings and a kill count of twenty.

"So, you've been brought up to be... military standard, then?" Ashley asked with a little naivety to him. Military standard, what the hell did that mean? And what was it supposed to mean anyway? He sounded like an idiot, but then again he was mostly an idiot.

"My family kicked me out when Hammel came to get me. I don't have any contact with them now," Ashley began, delving into a little information about himself, "I have two siblings, Catherine and Rael. They wouldn't stop fighting," Ashley smirked, remembering the time he had whacked the two round the head with a teddy, one which he still kept hidden in his wardrobe for good luck.

[Exie Yates]

Exie nodded, "According to my father, not only is it an honor to serve 'è tradizione'* in this family. Oh, sorry. I meant, it's tradition. My mother isn't able t have anymore kids, so I'm sort of his only hope for a lot of things." While Exie and her father did have a more rigid and strict relationship with one another, there was definitely love there. Frustration, sure. Just because her family was very strict... At least the nickname soldier was used endearingly between them.

Exie really wasn't sure of what she was supposed to tell about herself either. She figured it would all just go and she'd see what to talk about as things go on? She was allergic to pineapple and fabric softener, she could probably point out at least five things in the room that would give a person good or bad luck thanks to her extreme superstitions, because she's a military child she had to move a lot and got to see some sights. That was a fun time, but she was more than thrilled to have settled down.

The military standard? "You could say that..." She straightened up once again and gave a mocking salute. "Up at six, clean cut appearance, mind your sir's and ma'am's, keeping everything neat and tidy enough to pass a white glove test and of course keeping up with a sound body and mind." Daddy didn't raise a fool after all.

After learning this bit of information, Exie was glad that she was typically an optimist as well, "Tell me about your siblings? I never got any." Her parent's first reaction was bombarding the recruiter with about five million questions, and then trying to find out if they could kick her father out due to Exie's condition. Of course they embraced it. Her father even relaxed a little in some areas. He saw the gift as a great talent, once it was controlled, who wouldn't want to be get in somebody's head and talk to them when they're most vulnerable?

Although, that perspective just sounded creepy to Exie. Very. Creepy.

[Ashley Shaw]

He seemed to have guessed right about the military standard business. Her life seemed to be one overruled by military time tables and military appearance. Damn, it made him look like he just didn’t try, which was more than half true. He never liked to even brush his hair that much, just get the knots out and that was it. Not like Exie, who was beautiful with perfect manors. Ashley himself was just a regular teenage boy who loved to get up late. Very late. He could sleep in till four in the afternoon and still make the most of the remaining day. Sometimes, anyway. Sometimes he got up late at night, and began to curse at what a waste the day had been.
That was when Exie asked him to talk about his family.

What? Talk about his siblings? Now that was a story and a half, but where to begin was the matter. His siblings always did something to amuse him, when he was with them anyway. He still wondered if they thought about him. Probably not. He laughed to himself, scratching the back of his neck, trying to think of where to start.

“Well, my oldest sibling, Catherine, she was… a fashion freak, you could say,” Ashley said, improvising, “she had all the trends, all the expensive dresses and jewellery. My older brother Rael was a sports fan. Went out every day to play soccer and basketball. Usually left me at home.” Ashley suddenly remembered the day he had smacked his two older siblings around the head with his teddy when he was five. That was his first memory. It was a good one, at least. Seeing a small, rather helpless toddler hitting a seven and eleven year old. It came to surprise him that his sister or brother hadn’t struck back. Shock, probably.

“I don’t have much connection with them… no, that’s a understatement- I never have contact with them now, they’ve just vanished from my life,” Ashley corrected himself, looking up at Exie. She was extraordinarily polite for a girl her age. Most girls were like the boys, only… bitchy.
Ashley thought about one of her statements, and went back over them.

“What do you mean by ‘only hope’? Does that mean you’ll get a tone of hand-me-down’s from your parents?” Ashley asked with a pinch of sarcasm. Sarcasm was not an American humour, it was darn right British, but Ashley knew he wasn’t British. For one, he didn’t drink cups of tea or complain about the weather… both hot and cold.

[Exie Yates]

She didn't feel responsible, proactive, or any of those positive characteristics that people usually associated with her strict routine. Upon seeing the people around her that weren't raised on or near a military base, she realized how strange she really was. Although, she had also seen the benefits, there were plenty of people that wasted all the time they had. She sighed a little bit as she went on about her routine. "It's gotten sort of exhausting though. I'm so used to doing it that I don't even have to set alarms, but ever since my gift hit it's been a bit harder. I'm a coffee addict now." She chuckled, although it was entirely true. Before noon hit she'd already had four cups.

As soon as Ashley started to talk about his family, her tired eyes focused on him, hanging on his every word. She just wanted to at least hear what it was like. A fashionista? Well, she'd had a friend like that at least. While Exie loved to look cute... The hazardous girl was far more interested in sports than she was designer shoes. "Rael sounds interesting..." She loved sports. Absolutely adored them.

The next words out of his mouth made her regret her statement immediately. No contact? Was...Was he seriously exiled just for being different? Sure, her family was pretty distant and formal, but at least she never doubted for a moment that her family loved her. Terrified of failing them, sure, but at least they were by her side. "Oh, I'm sorry. That must be hard... I-" Her eyes widened in an afterthought. "I really don't mean that as a pity thing..." Please don't let him have felt offended or disrespected. Pretty please?

Only hope? Oh yeah. She nodded with a laugh, "He really wants me to continue the legacy. My mother wants me to keep the Italian heritage going. I've got plenty of Yates type things to keep going... " Something that was very, very important. She chuckled at the thought of her father intimidating her future husband into taking the name Yates, just so that it didn't die out.

[Ashley Shaw]

Ashley didn’t particularly want sympathy. He wasn’t to fond of the stuff, but then again, he probably didn’t know what getting sympathy was.
He listened with great interest, wondering how she could live the life she had. The military wasn’t a very welcoming aspect of a job, but it paid well if you didn’t get shot first. Wars were uncomfortable anyway, with the body counts and the dead innocents. Sometime Ashley wondered if war was the only way to make peace. It was better at making the poor even poorer and the rich even richer. That was its nature and always shall be its nature.

“Damn you must have a lot of pressure on you,” Ashley stated, replying to the few duties of being an only child. Her father must be a big guy in order to plan to scare Exie’s future husband into taking the name of Yates. Ashley felt sorry to whomever that was going to be.

“I’ve only ever known what its like to have siblings,” Ashley said, adjusting the way he sat to get more comfortable. He never thought that he’d get an indept conversation today. Seemed he was wrong about that. Exie seemed to be quite fond of talking, perhaps that could be her way of relaxing? Or did she just see it as a nessecity since he had started to talk to her? He tried not to think that was the case. Otherwise he’d get up and walk out. He didn’t want to force people into doing something, that wasn’t how he was. He was generally a nice guy, prone to the odd emo moment once in a while though.

“It gets really irritating after a while.”

[Exie Yates]

A lot of pressure on her? Well...Actually. Yes. The girl had developed a bit of an atelophobia, but nobody ever really asked her about that. Honestly, she couldn't remember the last time somebody asked her what it was she wanted to do with her life. Exie had been told for years that she would be in the military. Now she was being told that her power would probably stop her from being in there anyways. But talking about herself like this just wasn't her comfort zone. She shrugged it off and looked onto what was happening next.

She chuckled, "I'm in the co-ed dorms. It's the closest thing I've ever had to getting siblings. I have to say it's been... Interesting." It was also the closet thing she was going to get to living with any male until she was married.... Or deployed for something. The meta-human had accepted her fate.

Looking back up the clock, she was surprised to see that a decent amount of time had gone by. Although, it just made her think about all the other things she could have or should have been doing. Practicing, studying, looking for a job in town, talking to a recruiter probably to see if they had a place for her. She'd do great as a linguist actually. Hmmmm. But no! That wasn't the point. She looked up at him, "So how am I doing? Is this... Is this how people usually do nothing?" Or was there more, erm... Less. Was there less to it than what she had already been doing?

[Ashley Shaw]

Ashley laughed and patted the brunette on the shoulder.
“You’re doing fine!” Ashley was amazed at the girl. Asking if she was doing fine. Fine for what? This wasn’t a mock interview. Ashley found her cute to say the least. A little lost, but a little cute. He’d never met someone so peculiar. She was an interesting person, maybe in a bad way but she was interesting at least, and that was cool.

“I have a dorm to myself, it’s quite lonely,” Ashley answered, surprised that she was in co-ed dorm. That was new. He wasn’t all to sure on being in a dorm with mixed sex. It equalled awkwardness if you were that type of person. Ashley would rather be on his lonesome, but was planning on looking in for a place with some others, partially to stop him going insane if he got snowed in for a week. On the plus side, he could make it as messy as he wanted and no-one could complain. If he went into a dorm, he’d have to be supper neat, and tear down that pin board in his room of which was adorned drawings and photographs, and that one letter he got from his parents telling him to literally ‘fuck off’. he didn’t know why he still had it. Maybe he could shove it in his parents face while contemplating blowing them up. If he could, that was.

“I would expect it to be awkward, living with members of the opposite sex,” Ashley suggested, shrugging, “it could get a little nasty.”
He put forward the opinion with a pinch of salt, perhaps it wasn’t as bad as he thought. Although perhaps seeing to girls fight would be entertaining until he realised it preferably was not a good idea. Ashley leaned back and picked up the book, like he was handling a radioactive substance.

“Why were you reading this anyway? It sucks.”