Getting Physiological (Jared)

[Edith Love]

Edith felt like her head was so full her brain was going to leak out of her ears. She’d been reading for such a long time that the words in her Human Anatomy textbook didn’t even look like the appropriate alphabet anymore. Sanskrit, maybe? No, Sanskrit would have been more decipherable than the heap of junk she was staring at.

She looked up from her book and sighed, stretching her arms over her head. This just wasn’t working, she needed to DO something, not just read it. She knew she had to study, it was part of her power training, but the book was so dry and boring! This month’s training was all about the human skeleton - remembering each and every tiny bone, joint, ligament, and tendon. Remembering where each one was positioned, how each one was connected. Bleh!

She had been concentrating so hard on memorizing the name and position of each bone in the hand that she hadn’t even noticed Jared come in. She had no idea how long he had been there, but she appreciated that he hadn’t disturbed her. Now it was time for a distraction, or maybe even some study help. With that thought, Edie’s facial expression went from bored frustration to ‘oooh… I got an awesome idea!’

She stood up from her cross-legged position on the floor and twisted her back until she heard an extremely satisfying series of cracks. She bounced over to where Jared was sitting and beamed at him in a you-know-you-wanna-help-me kind of way. “Hey! Can I study on you?” She asked in her soft southern drawl, oblivious about how weird that sounded.

[Jared Park]

Jared loved lazy afternoons. Like the typical teenage kid, he rejoiced when he looked at the nifty black notebook-planner his older brother gave him (to help him organize his requirements and their respective deadlines) and saw nothing written on the page that says the current date. No homework, no quiz for tomorrow, no project to do, nothing. He tried to check his the ‘bird’s-eye-view’ calendar he has on the first page and nothing there too. This afternoon will prove to be a very fun one indeed.

He skipped merrily to the dorms, surprisingly not managing to slip or fall over someone. Not that he was a perpetual klutz, but he does have the tendency to be extra clumsy when he’s excited. He passed by Lani and gave him a playful poke from behind then ran as fast as he can, laughing and sticking his tongue out at the older man, savoring the small victory he’s achieved. With one final wink he dashed through the dorm rooms and slammed the door shut.

Oops.

Only when the door made the loud boom did he realize Edith’s been studying in the dorm’s common room. Not really a good move on his part. “Sorry,” he said softly as he walked quietly to the kitchenette. Grabbing a cereal box and a bowl, he went on and made himself a little snack. Whoever said that breakfast cereal’s meant only to be eaten in the morning?

After filling his bowl to the brim with milk, he carefully walked across the room, put down the said bowl on top of the center table and flopped himself on the couch. After making sure that the volume level was just enough so that he can watch without disturbing Edith, he thoughtlessly skimmed through the channels, stopping shortly to watch the latest Harry Potter and Tangled trailers, before settling down to watch the Drake&Josh marathon instead.

He isn’t really a big fan of the series, but he was so into the said episode that he didn’t notice the girl approach him until after she spoke. Fortunately he didn’t jump up from his seat (as it would make quite a mess, considering he’s holding the bowl in his hands), but he did tilt his head on her question. “Rhawri rhown reee?” he asked, forgetting that he shouldn’t speak with his mouth full.


ooc:
Sorry for the late reply Rosie. RL got in the way and all that. >.<. My schedule's lightened up though so hopefully I can reply faster next time.^^
-Jam
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[Edith Love]

Jared's shocked expression had Edie totally baffled. What had she said that was strange enough to warrant that kind of look? she replayed her question in her mind. Oh, right - innuendo. Oops! Edie blushed, which only served to exaggerate how bony and angular her face was. "I -uh- I meant -um- it's just that I'm studyin' anatomy, for my powers trainin', and lookin' at pictures and stuff is driving me crazy. Besides, I need to be able to find this parts on an actual person, not just a colored model. So -uh- yeah, would you mind helping me out with that?" Edie smiled at him in a rather embarrassed and apologetic way. Goodness girl, but you say some strange things sometimes! She thought to herself. She really needed to work on this whole brain to mouth filter thing. Maybe she could buy one at a hardware store or something?

She waited for Jared to finish the mouthful of cereal she nearly caused him to choke on. Now that she had said something so awkward, she was feeling awkward too. It made her very aware of the fact that her older brother's hand-me-down jeans were a little too big and were starting to slip off her hips. It wasn't like anyone could tell under her voluminous green sweater, (also a hand-me-down; but this was from one of her younger brothers. So maybe a hand-me-up?) but she noticed. She tried to pull them up without drawing attention to the fact that she was pulling them up. Why didn't I wear a belt?!

(OOC: I can forgive the late if you can forgive the short! XD But seriously, sorry on that one.)

[Jared Park]

To be honest, Jared had no ill thoughts about Edith’s question initially. Being quite the oblivious boy when it comes to innuendo and subtext, he found nothing inherently awkward or disturbing in his roommate’s request other than the fact that studying on him isn’t exactly a comfortable position, for any of them, and despite the weirdness of favors he’s asked and done for people before, never has he heard of one like hers. He had no idea how Edith would use him as a table (as that was how he processed the request) and if his back (as it was the broadest part of his body he can think of which can act as a ‘flat surface’) isn’t exactly level.

Only when she did blush, stutter and nervously fix her shirt and jeans (whose designs are a bit too ‘masculine’, in his opinion) did Jared get the supposed meaning her seemingly innocent request contained. And despite Jared’s amazing ability to overlook the not-so-subtle subtext (which, in Edith’s case, is purely unintentional, so he hopes), he still is a teenager who finds such a topic repulsive and embarrassing yet interesting and amusing all at the same time. In short, he too blushed. While he did not go as red as a tomato, it’s still red enough that it’ll take a while to will the blood out from his cheeks.

“N-no worries,” he said as he gulped down the mouthful of cereal he has on his mouth, “I-I understand.” Hopefully that’ll erase the awkwardness between them. Hopefully. “Studying for powers training? Woah. That’s intense.” Jared never had to exert extra study time for his power. While his power involves some mumbo-jumbo in his biochemistry, he never did have a session with his trainer about the theory behind his powers. Never once did it hit his mind that maybe understanding the principles behind his powers would help him control it better. Until now. “What’s your power again Edith? I think I forgot,” he asked with a shy smile, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. Sure they haven’t been roommates for long, but he recalls a brief conversation they had when she first arrived and he’s sure he’s asked the same question before. Hopefully Edith won’t mind answering a basic question about herself once more.

When she did mention about the ‘finding these parts on the human body’, he froze once more. A part of him’s telling that Edith’s not as innocent as he perceives her to be (i.e. he’s having doubts, slowly). “Err, what do you mean these parts?” Jared likes helping the people around him, but he can’t go around helping people blindly, can he?

[Edith Love]

Oddly enough, Jared's blushing actually made Edie feel better. At least she wasn't the only person who got all ruffled and embarrassed over this kind of stuff, no matter how innocent it really was. She forced herself to stop fidgeting with her pants and perched on the arm of the couch opposite where Jared was. Now don't be awkward, she thought to herself, you just need to look before you leap. Think about what you're saying!

Edith took a deep breath to try to bring the color out of her face and put a still slightly embarrassed smile on. "My power? It's biological manipulation. I can heal people, only it hurts like holy heck when I do it. It's really annoying actually, because I can't make it not hurt. How bad the pain is kinda depends on how bad the injury is, like if I heal a paper cut it feels like getting another paper cut; but if I heal a broken leg it feels like I swung as hard as I could with a sledgehammer. Which, for me, I guess, wouldn't be very hard at all. I don't think I could even lift one, actually. So more like Hulk Hogan smashed them with a sledgehammer." Edie realized she was babbling. She smiled brightly and forced herself to take another deep breath and calm down. She started up again, only more slowly and actually addressing what Jared ha asked. "I need to study because if I don't know how a person is put together I can't fix them right. I might fuse two bones that aren't supposed to be fused or somethin'. Someone could end up with a hand where a foot should be!" This gave Edie a spectacular mental image that made her giggle like a little girl. When her little giggling fit was over Edie realized that she couldn't remember what Jared's power was either. Well, might as well ask. "I've met so many people since I've come here that I've actually completely blanked what your power is too! Would you mind telling me again?" She smiled at him, this time far more naturally. Edie was used to getting herself into embarrassing situations so she usually got over it quickly.

Now it was Edie's turn to not get the subtext she had accidentally thrown into their conversation. "Well, right now I'm studying the bones and connections in the hands. I can find all the bones on a model just fine, but that doesn't help me much seeing as how when someone hurts themselves they usually don't have all their bits sticking out. I need to be able to figure out where they are, approximately, on a real person. That, and my textbook is SO boring! If I had to read another paragraph I might have ended up in the looney bin." She made circles with her finger around her ear and made a face to exaggerate her point.

[Jared Park]

Telling himself to look before he leaps never reaps good things in Jared’s experience. The more he becomes conscious of what he says, the more blunder he makes. It never really turns out good either way. So really he’d rather fail because it’s all because of impulse than think so thoroughly about what he’s going to say then fail anyway. And if he heard Edith tell herself that, he’d just laugh and discourage her too. Not her fault Jared can go from being so dense to being not-so-dense in a flash.

Jared’s jaws dropped in awe of Edith’s power. His eyes couldn’t help but widen as she narrated and explained her power. Sure she had some not-so-nice effects to her target (namely the rather painful ‘no anesthesia’ effect), but overall, it’s mighty useful. Even more because she can use it to help other people, not just herself. Compared to Jared’s extra lame power of invisibility (or a derivative of it), Edith’s got a brighter future ahead of her should she chose to become a superhero (he doubts she’ll be in the front lines though, unless she can make the villains surrender via painful surgery, but that’s a whole lot compared to him being on forever reserve, or so he thinks). “Oh. So that’s what they call it. Biological manipulation,” he nodded as things started to make sense around him. Especially the studying part. He doesn’t think people would find it funny if they suddenly grow a third leg from their rib cage all of a sudden. “I think that’s extra cool though. And I’m sure you’ll find a way to make your power less painful. Or you can just tweak their nerves a bit, make them numb, then bring their sense back after you’re done.”

“Me? I’m nothing impressive. Especially compared to you,” he said, scratching his head in embarrassment. It’s nothing new that Jared feels that he’s rather inadequate compared to others. While he loves being considered a meta-human, he abhors what made him one. He’s one of those kids who doesn’t really like being different, but wishes they could change what fate gave them. If only he could cause storms or teleport, he would be happy. Even something as mundane as glowing in the dark seems a whole lot better. Compared to his lame power anyway. “I’m invisible, but only to digital objects,” he explained with a forced smile. He never really liked talking about his power. “Digital cameras, electronic scales. Even automatic doors. Slamming into one and having the whole supermarket look at you isn’t really the best experience.” He tried to give a weak chuckle to hide his embarrassment and disappointment. “Nothing special compared to biological manipulation.”

Ooh. Now that made sense. Arms and hands. Not anywhere else. Unlike other teenage boys, he wasn’t really very proud of his body. Not there or anywhere else. “I find it easier to learn when I see it actually in front of me too,” nodded Jared. Reading a book never really appealed to him. His attention span just can’t take it. “Wait, so are you going to hurt me then?” he asked nervously. Being anyone’s guinea pig isn’t really a bad idea to Jared, but pain isn’t really something he’s looking forward to.

[Edith Love]

Edie watched with slightly bewildered amusement as Jared's jaw dropped. He was just so CUTE when he was all awestruck! "I've been working with my power trainer on controllin' nerve signals, but they're confusin'! It's all this crazy electrical stuff." Edie waved her hand in the air and made a funny face as if to say it didn't really matter anyway. "Anyway, I'm not complaining. It's nice being able to help people, and it only hurts for a second anyways." She shrugged and grinned to let Jared know it didn't really bother her that much, she just found it annoying.

Edith listened attentively as Jared told her about his power. His smile seemed a little odd, but he was still smiling so Edie brushed it off as her imagination. "I dunno, I think that's pretty cool. You could be a super spy! I mean, basically all security cameras are digital and so is most monitoring equipment, so all you have do to is learn to be a master of disguise! You would be a real life 007!" Edie started singing the "Mission Impossible" theme to emphasize her point. Sure, wrong movie, but she'd never been much of a film buff anyway. "Though running into automatic doors does sound uncomfortable. Do you have to wait for someone else to go through so it'll open or somethin'?" It really was amazing how quickly she could get over her embarrassments, and how dense she could be when it came to things other people didn't like to talk about.

Oh good, he was going to let her use him as her own personal mannequin! Her social stupidity hadn't messed that up at least. Edie stopped and stared at Jared for a second. Was she gonna hurt him..? Oh! Right, powers side effects! Yeah, sometimes Edie isn't the brightest crayon in the box. "Oh no! I'm not actually going to use my power on you! I mean, unless you're injured and you really want me to, but I'd suggest going to the nurse's office for that anyway. I'm just gonna see if I can figure out where the bones are in your hand without being able to actually see them. I can do it on me just fine, but then again, it's me and I can sort of, I dunno how to explain it, um, feel it, I guess? It's kinda weird." Edith smiled at him encouragingly. Hopefully he would let her try, it would be good for her to be able to find this stuff on real people. She couldn't exactly heal skeletal replicas.

[Jared Park]

Edith, never ever tell Jared that he’s cute. Nope, not now, not ever. The boy’s not really used to compliments and he’s just warming up to them, so telling him that he’s ‘cute’ would just blow his head off. Quite literally. He’d blush like crazy and would probably remain red for the next couple of days, and it would probably reappear for the next few weeks whenever he sees Edith. Being told ‘cute’ is one thing, but being told ‘cute’ by a girl his age? Especially one who he doesn’t really see that often except during the times he’s about to go to sleep? That’ll be something for the history books. It has happened before and it took quite some time for his embarrassment to go down. Now that he’s more hormonal (read: puberty), something tells me it’ll probably last more than before. A lot longer.

He laughed when Edith told him how cool his power could be. He never thought of him being a spy; the only usefulness he’s ever thought of is sneaking out and probably stealing objects. Which isn’t really a good thing. “See how useless my power is? I really don’t think secret agents exist,” he chuckled finding his background music extremely entertaining. If ever they do exist, where could he sign up then? And would they take him? “And I don’t do stealth really. I can’t turn invisible to the naked eye. So even if I can’t be seen by the cameras, if a guard passes by, busted. That and I can’t scale walls either.” Which is why he’s been bugging Lani to teach him lately. Guilt-tripping him doesn’t help much anymore unfortunately. “Though Hammel recruiters and informants do sound like something along those lines, don’t you think? I mean, they get to even the sneakiest metas in two months tops. Amazing,” he nodded, “Guess I’ll have a future career then.”

“Yup,” he confirmed, shaking his head in shame. When he was fourteen, the episodes were at random intervals, so there were times when he can go through the doors and times when he can’t. When he turned fifteen though and the powers went full blast, he’d have to wait for his brother or sister or someone else to pass through the door for him to be able to go through. So awkward really. “So is not being able to be seen through any camera, which meant no yearbook photos for me. And no webchat with my parents. And the difficulty in medical tests like CT scans.” He huffed in disappointment. Why should he be given such a useless power really? It’s extremely unfair.

Now that you’ve put it like that, it does seem kind of weird. Jared would surely laugh if Edith told him he’d be her ‘personal mannequin’; he can’t put his finger on it, but it just sounds funny. “Oh, so you just need to know where the bones are? How would you do that then? Does X-ray vision come along with your awesome power?” If it does, then Jared’s totally jealous of her now. In a friendly sort of way of course. He breathed in easily when she told him he’d be checking the bones of his hand. Thank goodness it wasn’t going to be somewhere else. Hopefully she would stay in her hand then (though I highly doubt it). “Fine then,” he said, stretching his arm out, “Study away. And I think I need help in Biology too so don’t be shy explaining to me all the bones and stuff.” Helping a friend and learning in the process? Jasper would be so proud of him.

[Edith Love]

Edith poo-pooed Jared's pessimism. "Well, they are secret agents. You're not actually supposed to know about them! What better defense than people thinkin' you don't exist?" She raised an eyebrow at him playfully. "And in the movies they never have any powers at all, so you've got a one up on them already! Now we'll just have to find the Ridiculously Secretive Academy of Super Spies and get you in, so you can learn to climb walls." Edie giggled at her own joke. "I bet we can find it online. The internet knows everything!" She was feeling a little giddy after all the sitting still she had been doing for the past few hours, and it mas making her act a little punchy. Edith thought about Jared's comment on Hammel recruiters, remembering the nice lady who had come to her house and offered her a place at the school. "Y'know, I bet you'd be a great recruiter. You're really nice, and you know how to help people feel comfortable. I mean, it was hard enough for me to leave my family, if the recruiter hadn't been so sweet I don't know if I even would have been able to bring myself to come. Also, I don't think you need to be able to scale walls for that job." She gave him a mischievous look to let him know she was teasing, but it was a good-natured teasing.

"Wow, that does suck." Edie commented. Jared was obviously distressed about his powers, and Edie could understand why. "Well, I've never done a video chat with my family either, but that's mostly because we don't have a computer at home and the ones at the library and at the schools don't have webcams." Edie did miss the simplicity of home - it was just her, her family, and a lot of chores and animals. Oh no you don't! She chided herself, you are not allowed to feel sorry for yourself! She replaced her falling grin and tried to help Jared feel better. It was in her sisterly nature. "Nobody ever looks good in yearbook pictures, so at least you get to skip that humiliation," Edie said with a cheeky grin, "and part of the reason I need to study anatomy and physiology is so that I can basically be a walking, talking CT machine. I mean, I can tell if someone is injured but I have to know what the problem is to be able to, uh, tell what the problem is. If that makes sense." She had really worded that poorly. She decided to try again, "Like if I don't know what an appendix is, I can't figure out if someone has appendicitis. I can tell that there's something wrong, generally, but not what it is specifically. Honestly, I think that's the best use of my powers. Just being able to diagnose people. And since I'm not a machine, I could do it to you too!" She put her hands on her hips triumphantly, as if she had managed to solve all of his problems with her one statement. She just wanted to get him to smile a real, happy smile.

Edith laughed at Jared's questions about her powers - a real belly laugh. "No, no, I don't have X-ray vision, though that would be totally awesome! I can just - I dunno how to explain it - I can just tell where something is and if there is something wrong with it, as long as I know where that something is supposed to be and what it is supposed to be like. It's not so much that I can see it as that I can sorta feel it?" Edie sighed. She really wasn't good at explaining this. "It's like walking around a room that you know really well in the dark. You can't see anything, but you know exactly where to go to not bump your shins or stub your toes, and if you do run into something you know for a fact it's not where it's supposed to be. I can just sort of tell." That analogy wasn't perfect, but it was as good as Edie was going to get.

Edith took Jared's outstretched arm and ran her fingers over the back of his hand. Now that she had been studying where these bones were supposed to be, she suddenly just knew exactly where they were under Jared's skin once she had touched it. She had been hoping that would happen! Her smile broadened into something rather goofy in her excitement. "Okay, so these are your phalanges, and these are your metacarpals, and here are your carpals..." Edie muttered, half to herself and half to Jared. "The really fun part is remembering the names of all the carpals." She told Jared, pointing at his wrist.

{OOC: Sorry this took so long! Finals time means a long time between posts. Pooh!}

[Jared Park]

Jared could only laugh amidst all that Edith had said. Not because her reasoning’s questionable or faulty (as it was somehow logical; he himself remembers thinking something along those lines as well) but because he just didn’t expect her to be anything like this. Jolly, enthusiastic and ever so giddy. True, she didn’t exactly seem like a ‘prim and proper’ Victorian lady when they first met a few weeks back, but Jared didn’t see her as a funny girl either. Seems he must’ve spent too much of his time outdoors, socializing with other people (not that it’s a bad thing in itself) that he probably overlooked his seemingly fun roommate. He can’t help but feel a wee bad, for himself at least (Edith was much too friendly for her to sit alone at lunch or anything; he assumes she makes quick friends of every stranger she sees anyway). Who knows how much mischief they could’ve gotten themselves into already had he been paying attention to his new roommie?

“You serious? Gosh. So there must be aliens really? That is so much fun,” he chuckled, clapping his hands in joy. Come to think of it, just a few years back, the world government denied and even refused to acknowledge the possibility of meta-humans. And while there are no prominent meta-human figures in the world today, the populace already knows they exist. So who’s to stop aliens, or secret spies, to exist too? “But I don’t think I’d pass as a secret spy really? Don’t you see the common thing about them all? They’re all good-looking. Brad Pitt. Johnny Depp. Mark Walhberg. Nah, I seriously think this cheeky face won’t pass off as a secret spy, even if I do possess the skills,” he added, flashing a childish, cheeky smile at Edith. And yes, he blames his older sister for dragging him into these spy-war movies and telling him that they should watch because <insert hot actor> here is on it.

Good Lord, not another compliment! “Pshaw. You give me too much credit Edith,” he said, sticking out his tongue and flushing a healthy shade of pink in embarrassment. This isn’t the first time Jared’s been told that his nice and friendly, and while he’s slowly starting to accept that he is a bit more accommodating than others, it still makes him a whole lot shy. “And besides, I may be friendly and all, but I ramble a lot. Like a lot.” When Dr. Campbell went to their house, he was all calm and business-like. Granted Jared was set to fly to Vermont in anyway (it was his mom that notified Hammel of her son’s meta-ness), but still, Jared admires the way he carried himself. Dr. Campbell knew the perfect words to say to pacify Jared’s fears. He certainly earned his spot as the Head of Recruiting, at least in Jared’s book. “If you want, you can be my partner. I handle the smiles, you handle the talking.” She talked Jared into letting her use him as his little marionette, what can be worse than that anyway?

“No computers?” he asked, his eyes widely opening in disbelief. How can they live like that? In this modern day and age, he couldn’t imagine a person, much less a family, living without internet connection. “H-how did you manage that?” Obviously a city boy, the quaint and peaceful country life is reserved only for vacations, in Jared’s eyes anyway. Sure the noise and pollution of the city can be tiring at times, but since he grew up in the suburbs, the noisy beeps of passing cars are more soothing to his city-boy ears than a cow herd’s moo anyday.

A walking, breathing, talking CT machine huh. That seems fun. And much more refreshing than those chrome monsters in a hospital. “That is so cool” was the only thing Jared could say as Edith rambled about her powers. And despite her rather sketchy description of her power (not that anyone could blame her), Jared took everything with awe and admiration (the fanboy in him was enough to translate any weird words and fill in any probable gap in her story to make it work in his mind anyway). “So are you planning on taking medicine in the future then?” he asked. To Jared, that seems like a fairly obvious choice. Not only will she be working to help people, she can put her powers to good use also. Not to mention she’s already studying anatomy now. She’d probably know as much as a medical student would know by the time she graduates high school. Whoever said having powers is easy anyway. “Then you can be my personal doctor. Or family doctor. Or whatever they call themselves,” he joked, giving Edith a playful nudge on the side, “You’d simply go ‘bleep bleep bloop bloop’ on me and you’d know if I sprained an ankle or ripped my lungs. Awesome.”

“Metacarpals?” Jared asked as Edith ‘played’ with his arm, “Does this mean our powers come from these bones? Hence ‘metahuman’?” Nope, it’s not because Jared’s blonde (it’s only artificial anyway). “And each bone has a name? Time to scrap biological manipulation on my power I’d wish I’d have list then.”


ooc:
Pshaw. Don't mention it.^^. It's all good. ;3.
- Jam
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[Edith Love]

[OOC: Soooo sorry this took so long again! I had a fail. RL decided to complicate everything. grr...]

Edith guffawed at the alien comment. "My oldest brother was pretty convinced I was an alien was my power manifested. I mean, we'd heard of meta-humans, only it was kinda like a rumor or something, y'know? We'd never met one, so even though we knew that we" She motioned between herself and Jared, "exist, it didn't really click completely. He was totally convinced that his sister had been abducted by the mother ship and I had been sent down to replace her. He kept trying to get me to trip up and tell him what it was like to live in a spaceship. Obviously, he's not the brightest crayon in the box." Edith loved Joe Jr., but everyone in the family knew that he was all brawn and no brains.

Now Jared had gone and done it, he'd basically told Edie he didn't think he was good looking. She couldn't help herself, she was and always will be a compliment machine, she just likes making other people feel better about themselves. She was going to call Jared cute. She gave him a skeptical look. "What're you talkin' about? You're adorable! You've got a really cute face. I don't think anyone would suspect you of anything, ever. You could get away with tons of stuff as a spy just 'cause people would assume you didn't do it!"

Edith couldn't help but have an internal "d'aww..." when Jared blushed. He really was cute! She just wanted to shrink him down and put him in her pocket. "We could totally be partners! We'd make quite the team, you'd ramble and I'd just never shut up." She stuck her tongue out of her mouth in an I'm-making-fun-of-myself expression. She knew she talked a lot, but she also liked to think she was good at listening. They would probably be great at putting new recruits at ease, but they certainly wouldn't create an image of Hammel that was anything like reality. People would probably think the school was ridiculously laid back.

Edie laughed at the look on Jared's face. "Yup, no computers. We don't really have the money to buy one, and if we did it would hardly get used anyway. Back home we never really had much spare time, and what little we had we spent as far away from home as possible because ma could always think up more chores for us to do. There's just a lot of stuff to get done around a farm, even in the dead of winter. That makes it a little hard to get bored, and that's all I ever seem to really use the computer labs for. My teachers also didn't expect everything to be typed, not like here." She made a fake grumpy face. She was learning to touch type, slowly, because chicken pecking the keys just wasn't fast enough. It was an annoying process though.

Edith had always liked helping people and had been the unofficial family medic when her mom was pregnant and couldn't bend down to put band-aids on cuts any more. She hadn't thought much about what she wanted to do with the rest of her life until her powers manifested though. Now, she really wanted to be a doctor. Or a veterinarian. Either way. "Yeah! I want to be a doctor of some sort, just not sure exactly what. It turns out that there are a lot of different kinds!" Edith had done some research while on the computers downstairs once, and had found the number of specialties mind-boggling. Edie liked Jared's sound effects. She needed to remember that for later! "I sure hope I never have to tell you that you ripped your lungs! That sound all kinds of unpleasant."

Though it was a strange questions, Edie considered it for a second. She really had no clue what the meta connection was. "Honestly, I'm not sure." Edie said pensively, "Maybe 'meta' just means something that applies both to us and our bones." She shrugged, "And yeah, every bone has it's own name, even though most are just numbered. like the meta-carpals, actually. All of them are just 'meta-carpal' and then a number from one to five. But the carpals all have their own, weird names. Like the trapezo... trapozod... trapom..." Crud, she'd lost it. She tried to remember some of the others. "Well, obviously I can't remember that one. But one of them is called the pisiform!" That one, at least, was easy, if only because it sounded like 'pissy-form'. "Honestly, I'd rather have one that required less studying too! This makes my brain hurt." She made a funny face to emphasize her point.

[Jared Park]

Jared simply burst into laughter when Edith told her alien abduction story. His family was ridiculous but hers seem so much funnier. What he’d do for Jasper to have that kind of humor. “Aww. That’s so awesome! My brother’s all non-sense, he was never that fun. Good thing Jeraiah was, else I’d go crazy in my house.” Not that Jasper didn’t know how to have fun, but he’s just too uptight at times. Guess that comes from being the eldest anyway. Thank goodness he wasn’t born first. “When my powers first manifested, they told me I may be a ghost really. You know those who appear randomly in photos? Man, they teased me for about a week or so about that.” Since his mom worked for the Swiss institute, the notion of meta-humans wasn’t new to the Park household really. It only came to a shock to them that their youngest would be a meta, or that a meta would in fact come from their family, ‘cause as far as they knew, they were related to no meta really.

It seems Edith’s just determined to make the young boy explode. Jared was a compliment machine himself, but not towards him. He’s been groomed to be very appreciative of people, but he was never told how to handle compliments, especially when they’re being thrown at him at such a rapid and energetic pace. “Stop it,” he chuckled, curling into a ball to hide his pink cheeks, “I’m going to cry if you keep on telling me I’m cute.” Not really, but he can’t think of anything else to make her stop anyway. “Get away because I don’t look like one? Isn’t that just like the Alex Rider series?” While Jared isn’t really into books, the said series managed to capture his attention, thanks to the graphic novel version of the first book he found in the library one day. Sure the succeeding books had no comic-esque translation anymore, but he was hooked enough to labor through the next four-five books.

“Hopefully the potential recruits wouldn’t be terrified of us,” he said, finding the whole notion of them recruiting rather outrageous. He was just sure that they’d give Dr. Campbell a massive headache every time should they decide to do it for real. “On the other hand, they might think of the school as a hippie camp. Oh gosh.”

“You lived in a farm? Woah. Amazing.” While Jared couldn’t imagine himself living in a farm all his life, he does wish he could spend a month or so in such an environment. He’d want to know if those shown on TV are really true. Feeding the cows, walking on dusty roads, waking up so early because of the roosters. “I couldn’t live without the internet. Like seriously.” True, Jared wasn’t born with the internet already in place, but ever since high-speed internet was established (which was, around three or four years ago), he’s been hooked ever since. The longest he’s gone without checking his social network accounts was three days. And he felt like hell through those times. “Chores? Hah. I never had those. Or if I did, it’s easy. Like maybe setting up the table once a week or so. I’m lucky to be the youngest really.”

“I know right. Jasper got confused at first too,” he nodded, knowing full well how complex medicine is. His older brother bugged him and his sister before on what he should be, a neurologist or a cardiologist? In the end, he decided he’d be like their mom, a geneticist of sorts. Something tells Jared he’ll be focusing on meta-humans too soon enough. “When that happens, simply repair it. But make sure you make me sleep first though. I’d scream like a baby girl if you operate on me without anesthesia,” he added, sticking his tongue out.

“At least you can take it though. I’d probably give up if they tell me my powers training involved studying.” ‘Cause in Jared’s mind, powers training is somewhat like the X-Men’s danger room, full of obstacles and traps. It didn’t occur to him, at least before this meeting, that some powers need some more knowledge to be able to use to the fullest. Blame popular media, he says, they make it seem so easy. “Gosh, I feel so stupid around you. You know a whole lot!”


ooc:
So sorry if it's a bit too crappy. And a little too late. >.<
- Jam

[Edith Love]

Edith couldn't really imagine her oldest brother being serious. It just wasn't in his nature, mostly because he was so cheerful all the time. "Ha! My oldest brother is always kinda ridiculous. It's my 2nd youngest brother, Roland, who's the serious one in the family. It's hilarious because he's only six, and he's always such a grump! He pouts about everything!" Edith thought about it for a second, "Actually, he's really the only one of us who is serious. Well, if my folks were looking for smart, studious, serious kids, it only took them five tries." Edith laughed at her own bad joke. Sure, she thought it was funny, but no one else here had met her family. Mostly it didn't make sense to them that two people could have so many children! Six was a lot, but it did mean that no one ever felt lonely. "A ghost? Really? Didn't anyone ever tell them that ghosts can't mess with stuff here on earth? You seem to be quite solid to me." She poked his hand interrogatively to prove her point. Yup, he was definitely there.

Edie didn't want to make Jared cry, but he was just getting cuter and cuter! Not in a make-out-with-me kind of way, more like a I-want-to-pet-you-and-pinch-your-cheeks kind of way. Which she did, except for the cheek pinching. Edith reached out and patted his hair. It was surprisingly soft, for him being a boy and all. In fact, it was probably better cared for than Edith's. "All right, I won't call you cute any more. How 'bout darlin'?" Edie giggled, she couldn't help but want to tease him with the way he was reacting. It wasn't mean spirited, she just missed having little brothers to tease. "I've never actually read the Alex Rider series. Is it good?" Edith wasn't a huge fan of reading, she liked doing more, but when she was feeling tired but not sleepy a good book always helped her relax.

Edith laughed at Jared's hippie camp suggestion. "Hey, if we do become trainers, we should make sure to go to every house wearing nothing but tie-dye and ripped jeans." She gave him a cheeky look, "Though I have to say, compared to my old school, this place is pretty relaxed. I'm guessing it's because a lot of the students are having issues with their powers, like that guy in my English class who sneezed and lit his test paper on fire. He was so embarrassed, but it's not like he's the only one to ever do something like that. I heard about a hydrokinetic who accidentally flooded a classroom because he got anxious. You know, we're lucky that when our powers malfunction it doesn't cause a disaster." Okay, she was rambling, so maybe she wasn't the best listener. But she was enjoying the fact that she and Jared could talk each others ears off.

No chores? Wow. That would be totally awesome! "Psshh. By the time baby Stephen gets old enough to start doing chores Joe will be out of the house, and I'm already here. He's not going to get it that easy. Kinda wish I had though. I mean, I am the only girl. Guess that's not enough to get a no-chore privileged though." Edith made a face. Her mother was always the I'm-going-to-raise-a-strong-woman type, Edie was doomed from the start. "Though I have to say, not all the chores are bad. I like taking care of Wilbur. He's our pig, named after the one from Charlotte's web. He was originally going to be food, but then Lukas got all attached and named him and everything went downhill from there." Edith laughed. Lukas was the softie of the group. If anyone decided to take Wilbur to slaughter, he'd probably cry for days.

"You're brother is a doctor?" Edith asked, genuinely interested. She might have an advantage over other doctors with her power, but that didn't mean she really knew what she wanted to do with it. Having someone she might be able to talk to, or even talk to someone who talked to him, would be really helpful. Edith wanted to try to start specializing early, it would reduce the ridiculous amount of studying she would have to do. (Not really, but she could dream.) "All right. I'll make sure to get you to someone who has the ability to make people go unconscious first, though I haven't actually met anyone like that. Got any suggestions?"

Now it was Edie's turn to blush. Had he really just called her smart? She'd never really considered herself to be, or been told she was. She did fairly well in school, but that was more out of persistent hard work than straight up smarts. "Awww... You're not stupid! We're just talking about something I know about. And really, I just know the names and where they go. I don't even really know what they do or how they work to make a hand move. I mean, if we were talking about computers right now I would be totally lost." It was true. She was hopelessly technologically illiterate.

[Jared Park]

Jared couldn’t help but smile as Edith happily told the tale of her hilarious family. It’s not every day you encounter someone who’s extremely proud of their family. Jared actually felt a little weird before because most of the people he’s talked to, either had some sort of rift with a brother or a sister or was just disowned of their family because they turned out to be different, something that didn’t really happen to him. in a world of misfortune, he finds relief that he’s not the only ‘fortunate’ one, no matter how crude that sounds. “Aww. That’s so cuuuute!” Unlike other guys, Jared doesn’t hold back much on the c-word. Why restrain yourself if that’s what you really feel? This is just one of the reasons why he hates the whole machismo image. “The way you’re describing him, I just want to pinch his cheeks. Like this,” he chuckled as he made some pinching actions.

“Woah. Five tries…that means…five siblings?” he thought loudly as he counted in his head, “No wait, second youngest six…WOAH! There are seven of you? So that means nine total in the family? That’s a lot!” (Forgive him Edith, he’s just not that good in math.) Not that it’s a bad thing though, it’s just that back in his hometown, three was already considered a lot, and four was somewhat the maximum. “So you already told me about your three brothers, which means…you have three more sisters?”

“Hey, no poking,” he laughed as he returned the favor by poking Edith on the side. Edith should never had started a ‘poking war’ (in Jared’s eyes anyway), not with Jared anyway. He sees the whole playful poking thing as the greatest ever and would not stop until he hears Edith’s surrender amidst her laughter. He only stopped for a bit as Edith decided not to call him ‘cute’ anymore but chose a much odder name. “Darling? Are you even sure you’re from this century Edith?” he teased as he continued with the onslaught of pokes, laughing rather loudly as he did. “I find it really entertaining, but Jasper, being the Jasper that he is, says it’s rather childish and boring. He says it’s too obvious. He spoils me about the twists and it’s just Chapter 2!” Nope, Jared does not see early on how this guy would betray them and that guy sell Alex’s secrets to the enemy. He’s just so dense like that.

“Tie-dye and ripped jeans? Eww. That’s so yesterday. I resign as a recruiter then!” Jared smiled, “If that’s the dress code, then I’m out.” Jared was having just as much fun as Edith is in this conversation. Who’d ever thought they’d end up talking about their possible futures from a simple request to check his bones? “I know! I was in that class. Lucky for me I’m such a bad student that I only brought my binder and pen that none of my important stuff got soaked,” he narrated as he recalled that grueling day. He had to come back to their dorms dripping wet because of that incident, “Then again, poor Jeremy was teased a lot after that. It wasn’t his fault really. Ms. Grey’s oral exams were extra hard.”

Only girl? Guess that answers his previous question. “Thank goodness Jasper was so eager to take all the chores then,” he said, “I mean, I tried to help, but he wasn’t satisfied with my work. So he gladly took over and let me be the cute little youngin’ who does nothing but play all day.” He does feel guilty about being such a bum at times, but it’s Jasper’s fault for being such a perfectionist anyway. “You have a pet? I ENVY YOU!” True, it was a pig, but a pet nonetheless. What Jared would do to get a pet he could snuggle and hug (which rules out fishes, tarantulas or frogs). “I was supposed to have a puppy three Christmases ago, but once again Jasper got in the way. And this time, Grandpappy agreed with him. Do you think I’d really fail at taking care of a small dog?” It didn’t occur to him that all this talk about Jasper ruining his fun is making his brother look like a supervillain. Nope, not one bit.

“In his dreams,” he chuckled, rolling his eyes. Jasper was smart but he’s not that smart to be able to obtain a medical degree this early in life. “He’s still in college, studying a pre-medical degree or something,” he shrugged. Jasper’s academic life confused Jared widely, so he could really care less if he gets the facts straight, “My mom is though. She’s working at Kocher right now.”

A meta with the power to make him sleep? Now that’s a toughie. “Would mind controllers be able to make me sleep then? Or maybe not,” he thought, tapping his chin as if thinking so pensively, “Oh, I think there’s a senior with the power of…er…what’s that again…tactile anesthesia or something? I forgot his name though. I think you’d be perfect partners. Lol.”

Straight up smarts or just hard work, what’s the difference? Jared has none of both, much to his parents’ and siblings’ chagrin. He doesn’t fail (thank goodness) but he doesn’t put in enough effort too for him to get to the top. “I get lost with big words,” he mumbled, laughing inwardly at Edith’s blush, “Don’t worry about it though. As far as everyone’s concerned, computers are basic, bones and carpals or whatever, they’re amazing.”

[Edith Love]

Edith laughed out loud when Jared talked about pinching Roly's cheeks. Sure, she did that often enough, if just to annoy him, but she'd never really imagined Jared as the cheek pinching type. She had the urge to reach forward and pinch Jared's, and then ask him if that was what he meant, but she didn't really know him well enough to go around face grabbing. Instead, she focused on her amazingly large number of brothers. "No, actually, only six of us. So far. Not sure if ma and pa are still wanting more monsters. I think ma just really wants another girl. So yeah, it's me, Joe Jr., Richard, Lukas, Roland and Stephen. I guess that's a lot of kids, but it's pretty normal around where I come from." She shrugged. Big families were great in farming communities, free labor! "I guess you city folk don't generally have such big families, but I don't think I'd want to live with my brothers without a couple acres, so it makes sense."

Edith squeaked when Jared poked her, which was about the girliest noise her body could make. She started poking him back, laughing hysterically because it tickled! She fell off the arm of the couch and onto the couch itself, curling into a ball because she was loosing the poking war. She squirmed and giggled, but she was so ticklish that was about the best she could do. "I give! I give! You win!" She squealed. She straightened up and caught her breath before answering Jared. "Well, technically I'm from last century, but so are you, so ha!" She said and stuck her tongue out at him. "Well, I'll see if they have the first one at the library. I like reading before I go to sleep, it's relaxing."

Edith laughed loudly at Jared's objection to the tie-dye. "I think the new recruits would just make fun of us, and then follow us here to see if everyone was just as ridiculous." She made a ridiculous face to emphasize her own personal ridiculousness. Edith's eyes went wide, "You were? That must have been so cool to see! I heard it was like a monsoon, and they had to keep that classroom empty for a month to dry it and make sure there wasn't any mold growing. I bet it was really funny, even if I do feel bad for Jeremy. I hope no one gave him too hard a time because of it." That was Edith, always thinking of others.

"Pshh... Joe was always eager to try and load all the chores on me, even though it never really worked. Mostly it just got him in trouble and then he had to do even more chores!" Edith smiled, reminiscing. Ahhh... watching Joey get himself into trouble had always been so much fun! "Oh, we have more animals than just Wilbur, but I wouldn't really call all of them pets. We have Bessy and Jenny, our dairy cows, and we have like thirty barn cats or somethin' ridiculous because they like our barn 'cause we don't throw stuff at them like some of the other people. We have a horse, his name is Plow. Not real creative or anythin', since he is a plow horse. And we have three dogs. Rascal, Patsy, and Cousin It. Y'know, like from the Adams Family?" She shrugged. She'd always been around animals, it was totally normal. "Oh! And I almost forgot. We have a bunch of chickens, but chickens are so dumb they hardly count as animals anyway. I think our crops are smarter than them half the time." She smiled at Jared to let him know she was trying to be funny, though most of the time only country kids got her animal jokes. "Nah! I think you'd be great with a dog. They're easier to take care of than the cows and horses, that's for sure. If any of our dogs or our neighbors dogs have puppies, I'll ask ma to save one for you." She smiled at him. She really meant that, too. It was how things worked where she came from.

Edith giggled at Jared's expression. "Ha! I think I'm doin' that already! But you're mom's a doctor? That's awesome!" It was so cool that her roommate knew so many people who were into medical stuff! "Ah, what's Kocher?"

Edith rolled her eyes when Jared said that what she was doing was amazing. She was just doing what anyone could do, she was memorizing stuff. She decided the best way to deal with this was with a sneak attack to begin a second tickle war! She lunged at him and poked him in the side before tickling him mercilessly. "Ha! Gotcha!"