Winter Frost [open]

[Mia Inocencio]

This could not be happening. She's been through this exercise many times before and she never failed, the structure never crumbled, and she's never been so tired in her months at Hammel. Something was up; perhaps the lack of friends? Nah. It was the weather, the season to be more precise. Mia liked the winter season, but it caused problems towards her powers. Big problems.

As usual Mia would get up for breakfast and head to the training field first in the morning during the weekends. Over the past few days she not only noticed the change in climate, but the way her energy constructs would get weaker as the days grew colder, until it got to the point where her force fields would just turn to solid ice as soon as it was summoned, and then it would buckle down like a stack of unstable noodle-soup cans. It was understandable, but very irritating.

So, she practiced. And practiced. And practiced until today, Mia found herself standing in front of another broken down structure she had created. She thought about going to the gym before, but what would she do there? Trap half of the students in a force field? It was too crowded in the gymnasium and Mia always required plenty of space exercise her powers, and she preferred being outside anyway. But today, today wasn't working out; and Mia let her self fall down in a blanket of snow. With her legs spread and her arms folded, she huffed at the image of her demolished structure.

[Vincent Romanov]

Vincent stood there in the snow, warm and watching a curious girl sitting in the snow. He himself was secure from the cold, dressed in a something a bit less formal than he was usually seen in or required to wear. He wore a pair of insulated cargo pants with combat boots and a thick winter coat. Underneath his coat he wore a thick sweater with thermal top underneath. A pair of wrap around ear muffs keep his ears warm and while the cotton half finger gloves didn't fully keep his hands safe from the wind, the cup of hot coffee did. This was the one real time of the year Vincent could escape the suit Claude insisted that he wear. One never knew what sort of trouble might arise with the snow and making sure you were properly prepared to endure the cold was a must. The other guards on staff were allowed to wear winter gear, more causal than Vincent's though.

His dark eyes scanned the situation before him, the scene of the girl failing whatever task she was trying to perform, playing out over and over. For the moment, the girl seemed to be giving up or just resting. She could project forcefields, a power Vincent had seen more than once and a very useful one at that. No doubt the girl would be very sought after when and if she mastered her ability. Taking a slow sip of his hot coffee, Vincent pondered what made up these energy constructs. Mental ability or some sort of energy manipulation or something else entirely. Whatever it was, it mattered little as the girl was failing to keep her fields in tact. Vincent understood nothing of this sort of power or the downsides which came with it, but he did remember the training he had underwent when he was a student here. His ability was a bit easier to master though as it was a reflexive one, something his body sort of did on its own. Harnessing the power however, was the real test for him. Once he understood what he was doing, the rest sort of just fell into line. A bit of focus and concentration and Vincent's power came into check. He had it easy he supposed, but in the end, none of them had it easy.

With a smile, Vincent began to slowly approach the girl as she sat in the snow. "I'm not a trainer or anything....not officially anyway," Vincent began once withing speaking distance of the girl, "but I might be able to give some insight from a different point of view you haven't considered," he said, stopping just short of Mia. He took another sip of his coffee and then lowered the cup from his lips, "Its sort of hard to push your powers when your not facing anything life threatening or serious," he began again, "When you know your not going to lose anything, then you don't try as hard as you really can. When your life is on the line however, or the lives of those you care about, then you see the real you," he finished. It might not have sounded like sensible advice, but Vincent was an old school sort of guy with military ideals beat into his head. Everything was pretty straightforward for him and age really meant nothing. If this girl couldn't muster up enough grit to harness her ability now, then she never would be able.