Spiritual Musings

[Ashley Shaw]

It was only very rarely did anyone find Ashley Shaw in the streets of Pilot Ridge. Usually hulled up in his room or wandering the Hammel Institute in the complete dark. Even though his days of endless tears was coming to close, he still found time to walk around at night. It was a eerie place, it was like being in a bad horror film and the only plus was its setting.
So tonight could be considered special in many ways. It might have signalled that he was getting better- kind of-, or that he was actually learning not to be a social hermit 25/8. But the main reason was he had just wanted to get away from everyone.
From Kent, from Ant and May. He and her were not on the best of grounds at the moment, and he just wanted to take his mind off of it. He probably wouldn’t be going home in a while. If he ever did go home that was, he could just drive around a bit or fall asleep at the table. It was normal… right? Either way, it was better than going back to a home that felt like misery all the time.

Ashley was sat at a table with a cup of coffee in his hands, it was around five o’clock in the afternoon, and the winter sun was already faded. He was wearing a blazer-type jacket, probably a little to formal, in dark jeans and trainers, a thick navy blue scarf around his neck and a white dress shirt. Yep. Way to formal for a teenage boy. He didn’t care. Why should he? He wasn’t anybody else’s problem and it could stay that way. No-one else was going to get hurt because of him, or in events that happened around of him. He would never allow it. People meant more than he did, in his eyes he was the servant and everyone else was his master.

With a smirk, Ash sipped the coffee, not making any kind of expression to show his opinion. He just stared out of the window and into the sky, losing himself in its silvery light. How could all of this come about from chance? Surely their had to be something else out there. No matter what it was, he was sure that some kind of force was watching over them, and when he died and went to hell, he’d have some questions he wanted answered.

[Delilah Pryce]

Kali's Kafe....a nightmare of forced social interaction and too much cramped quarters for those who didn't like their personal space violated. All the coming and going of the corporate drones grabbing their evening fix of caffeine or whatever it was 'normal' America ran on these days, was certainly not the setting Delilah would have willingly chose to immerse herself in. Socially, she was rude and short tempered, but that was really in accordance with the place and company she found herself with. Delilah was more relaxed and non-violent when in the company of women and the opposite was true in the company of men. She just didn't like them or trust them in any manner, but over the years, she had been working on that negative side of herself. It wasn't as if she was feeling bad for the way she treated men, she just knew she couldn't keep living in solid fear or anger. One day, she was going to assault the wrong guy and while anyone in particular getting the better of her was rare, it was the threat of putting herself on the map of Johnny Law which she needed to avoid. Her police record and federal record weren't exactly clean and she had even heard she had her own team of federal boy scouts back in D.C. trying to track her down.

Delilah's eyes twitched from one person to the next as they entered and left the building, each one in turn giving her what she deemed a snotty look. All those soccer moms and their bread winning husbands.....bunch of social hypocrites. All their fancy suites and dresses which they thought made them better than the so called 'rags' Delilah chose to dress herself in. Black steel toed boots with wide legged blue jeans and a very tight long sleeve tee with a pair of fingerless black cotton gloves. Around her neck was a leather rope necklace with a small silver charm of a closed fist. A green canvas jacket to shield her small body from wind topped off the clothing. Her long black hair fell loosely around her shoulders, causing Delilah to stand out more than she was aware. As usual, she wore little make up besides a base and some dark eyeliner. She wasn't the picture of femininity, but that still didn't give anyone the right to judge her.

In her small hands, she held a cup of coffee and an unlit cigarette (stupid no smoking laws). Her hands trembled just a bit from nervousness, but thanks to the cocktail of pain pills and other muscle relaxers, she was beginning to feel the edge coming off. Delilah raised her left hand, the hand which held her unlit cigarette, and rubbed one of her eyes with her palm. "This is a bad idea," she muttered to herself, dropping her hand to look around the cafe once again. Not many were stopping to sit and sip their beverage and the few which were there really did not look appealing. Finally, with a sigh, her eyes settled on someone who looked out of place. He looked young, or at least younger than Delilah and his choice of clothing was certainly not something that fit his age. Rolling her eyes, Delilah rethought her position and them forced her feet to move, "Just don't hurt him", she muttered to herself again.

The walk was short, a matter of a few seconds, but to Delilah and her paranoid mind, it was a walk of forever. The weight of the world hung about her neck and her shoulders became heavy, but with a strength of a goddess, she pushed on. A wave of fear washed through her with each heavy footfall and the back of her neck became hot as did her ears, the taste of bile in her mouth, making her feel as if she would throw up any second. Her hands began to shake more, threatening to spill her coffee to the floor. It was hard to believe this was the same woman who had killed several men, but even monsters had fears.

Upon reaching Ashley Shaw and his table of emo gloom, Delilah pushed the empty chair on the other side of table back with her foot. She never waited for a word, but sat down, coffee cup hitting the table and her eyes narrowing. "My shrink says I need to socialize more with the male population," she said with what seemed to be some fear and annoyance in her voice, "and while I'm sure you've got the equipment to technically classify in that category, I find you sissy looking enough to be the least threatening," she added, insulting Ashley right out of the gate. Flicking her unlit cigarette out of habit, Delilah studied Ashley, waiting for whatever movement or mocking tone would come from him, "Let's just get this over with so I can at least tell my shrink I tried and she'll get off my back," she went on, not really giving Ashley much time to react to the moment, "I'm Delilah," she added, finishing or rather beginning this awkward moment.

[Ashley Shaw]

Ashley peered up as an older woman sat down at the table with him. She looked friendly enough, but apparently she was as mature as a six year old. Ashley always thought it a bit peculiar, how someone could act what there age was not. Usually in a bad way, but here and there you’d find one that was fourteen years old with no friends due to being to mature for the people around them. He hadn’t been that at all, but close. He wasn’t to well known around these parts, he was more well known in California, and even that was for all the wrong reasons. He sometimes wondered why he was still even alive because of the things he’s done. Even he remembers it, and yet he had been unconscious through most of it. He guessed that his body remembered it, but his mind didn’t. Hu. How awkward was that. It was like grating cheese in the dark while on painkillers. You couldn’t tell when you mutilated yourself or even what type of cheese you were grating.
Ashley almost smirked to himself. He was getting ace at this simile and metaphor making. It wasn’t like he didn’t know how to do that before, it was just he seemed to be getting better now.

This girl- Delilah- insulted him and belittled him, a normal person would have either corrected her with genius or started swearing and cussing at her. Sometimes he wondered if that was the correct thing to do in this situation. Even if so, he was in position to insult this older woman. She was wiser than he was, and more experienced. He was just that manically depressive student who didn’t mean anything to the world. Probably better off dead, in all honesty. That’s what he thought most of the times. He admitted that -inside- he was to unstable to ignore. But he continued to do so. Around friends he was fine, the artists that was bound to go nowhere, but still had a crack at it.

“You’re right,” Ashley said with a smirk, “I’m not strong. I’m weak in all senses of the word. Almost.” Ashley paused to sip his coffee. He’d gotten used to not standing up for himself, and being someone emotionally unstable, he really should be bursting out in tears. He guessed he’d just had enough of it. Everybody he met, they all said the same to him. They never cared to dig just beyond the surface to the root of the problem. That was what society lacked. They all lacked the ignorance to shove the instability and depression aside to see what was really going on. It was a topic Ashley was always thinking about. He knew people saw him as emo, but did they ever bother to work out why? Or were they to scared? He couldn’t blame them. People condemned what they couldn’t understand. It was the reason for war. The reason for hate.

“I can’t handle emotions, yet I can take endless insults. I can’t break anybodies bones. Apparently that is the only thing that counts in high school,” Ashley smirked and tapped the side of the coffee cup with a teaspoon, leaning on one hand. He wasn’t going to look at Delilah. She’d do something if he did. Actually, she’d probably do anything whether he reacted or not. He was talking in a mellow voice, low volume, like someone who had more of a gentle spirit. He smirked.
“It’s not nice having someone nag you all the time,” he added, “if you don’t know already, I’m Ashley Shaw,”

[Delilah Pryce]

Delilah just sort of sat there, mouth all crooked and one eyebrow arched. Her hands had stopped shaking, indicating her disorder was completely mental other than physical, but then again, she herself could have told you that. Delilah was fully aware that all those little ticks and quirks she exhibited on a daily basis were the by product of her collapsed mental state. Never once did Delilah try to deny her problems and had been seeing head shrinks on and off since her acceptance in Hammel all those years ago. She was a nut case, but with good reason, however, Uncle Sam didn't quite think that was a good enough reason to be killing people however. Whatever fear she had of Ashley's gender was sort of shifted to the back burner, a completely involuntary reaction in and of itself. Switching fear on and off wasn't a conscious decision, or at least not this sort of fear. If it were that easy, then Delilah wouldn't be here in this state.

Ashley had this educated know-it-all tone to his voice and that grated on Delilah's brutish attitude. Despite his young looks, Ashley was certainly beyond his years mentally. Out of all the people to pick, Delilah had to pick the freak show. Perhaps she had done it subconsciously, her worried mind finding the least threatening and kindred spirit it could. Delilah wasn't the poster child for normality by far. Being a meta alone was enough to classify her as a freak of nature, and throw in her horrid past and you had a tragedy befitting Shakespeare himself. She had counted on her malicious attitude and words to drive Ashley off and thus spare her the trouble of having to interact with a man, but it seemed that wasn't about to happen.

"Uh hunh," she said simply, sort of lost in the moment, caught in some form of disbelief. Ashley finished berating himself for Delilah, taking all the fun from the moment. Not once had Ashley looked at Delilah as he spoke and that irritated her even more. She wanted an excuse to strike him, to hurt him. He deserved to be hurt, for no more reason other than the fact he was male. All those mindless animals were the same, just waiting for the moment to do all sorts of nightmarish things to you. Every man bore the face of Delilah's demon, that of her damned father. Every time she looked at a man, she saw that bastard and just wanted to make him hurt for a change. Even now, as she listened to Ashley's dead tone, she felt a small rage building inside her, however, the oddity of the boy held the monster inside her at bay.

Sucking in her bottom lip and biting it, Delilah stared at Ashley. "You've even got a girls name," she said casually, appearing to be lost in some moment or another, then with a smile, she scrapped her thumbnail over the filtered end of her unlit cigarette, "It's your lucky day then mister Shaw.....or at least for the duration of this conversation," she said rather oddly. Ashley's unusual demeanor and his rather feminine aura put Delilah at odds with herself. He was still a man and thus deserving of her hatred, but he just didn't fit the mold which infuriated her. For now, he was likable, but with Delilah that could change at the drop of a hat. "Tell you what," she said, leaning in across the table, closer to Ashley, "You tell me your diagnosed craziness and I'll share mine," she said with a wink.

[Ashley Shaw]

He wasn’t surprised at what she said next; he was predicting everything she would say, according to other people, spare Ant and May. It was going swimmingly. He couldn’t believe how old the insults were. He’d heard this from a five-year-old. Twice. He was fighting a smiled, keeping hold of dead eyes and expression. He swore he was forgetting them. Odd thing to think, but he seemed to be deleting all his physical emotions one by one, making sure they couldn’t hurt him again. He’d wasted enough time trying to keep them in line, but emotions just didn’t do that. They wanted to make your life a hell so that it would be to painful to live everyday. He'd let his get to him, and it was already to late to turn it back now.

While Delilah spoke, he listened. Not flinching, not moving not shifting even an inch. Like a machine on duty waiting to be told ‘where too’. He wouldn’t follow. He wasn’t built to do that. He was made to run away, and he would if he wasn’t confined to a school that helped as much as a baseball bat to the head to cure a headache. Rather that try to help him at all, he was expected to organised it all. Most of it had been Hammel’s fault anyway.
Even more so, he shouldn’t have been found under the rubble at his old school; he should have died and he would have accepted that as his fate. Would have spared him this, even May didn't care in his view at this point. Why should she? She wasn't him, she would never understand nor truly care. It was all about the care, and he got none.

"I've heard that before," Ashley spoke in a weak voice -emotionally or physically, either or- lifting the coffee cup to his lips to drink a little more, "it's actually a unisex name. It's origin is masculine. In Europe it is mainly a male name. Over here it's been subject to media change." Ashley smiled and looked away, looking at his hand, for no particular reason, just the fact that it resemble a tree. Ashley was familiar with the Ash tree legends.
A man who had an ash tree in his garden, and if he found a seed, was thought to be lucky in love. Mostly, the ash tree stood for grandeur. The quality of being great or grand and very impressive. It was, of course, an irony, since Ashley was none of those things. He was not lucky in love, and he was not grand or impressive. More like weak and unstable.
Why was he lucky with such a name? Did she hate masculine names, or just men in general? He didn’t all Californians because the people of San Francisco held a grudge. It was like having something for that one in one thousand. It just didn’t work that way in the world. The real world, anyway.

Ashley tilted his head at her last statement. His diagnosed craziness? That was very vague wasn’t it? He couldn’t blame her. She didn’t seem the type to explain all to well, unlike him who did for the sake of the other person not looking like a thick plank if there ever was one. He guessed she meant mental disorders, or types of. He couldn’t tell, but he’d give a hint.

“You mean like, mental problems?” he asked, finishing his coffee and placing it down silently without a rattle. This was becoming very uncomfortable. He felt like any wrong move and he’d be dead. First off, what did she hate? If he figured that out, she could end this for him.

[Delilah Pryce]

Whether or not Delilah had made the right choice in her social companion for the next little bit was now in question. She certainly hadn't wanted to strike up any conversation with anyone in particular today, especially a guy. However, most of her employers were men and like it or not, she would have to have some comfortability around them. Besides, Delilah's current shrink was hounding her day and night about this problem of hers. The stupid quack actually thought she could 'cure' Delilah of her fear of the opposite sex. Too much damage had been done to Delilah, both physically and mentally for Delilah to return from her insanity. The only thing which seemed to anchor her and keep her from crossing the line into permanent craziness was her anger and her drive to punish every man she could for her father's crimes. Ashley wasn't threatening and was a bit safe from Delilah's malice at the moment, but he was quickly heading for danger. All this know-it-all attitude grated on Delilah, as her narrowed eyes were now telling.

Setting back into her chair, Delilah stared at Ashley, caring less about the origins of his name and even less if it was masculine or feminine. She had never met a guy named Ashely and no matter what he spouted off, he still had a girl's name in her book. "That's what I asked genius. What part of my question don't you understand?," she said and asked with a heavy sigh. Ashley was just weird and he had to have something wrong with him, diagnosed or not. He was a freak. Sitting here all alone, dressed far beyond his years and drinking tea like an old woman. Of course, Delilah didn't have much room to criticize anyone. She didn't have any friends and wouldn't know even how to go about getting one if she wanted to. She had a remarkable talent for being able to piss anyone off with minimal effort, a defensive mechanism more than anything malicious really.

Turning her head sharply, Delilah sort of jumped a little as some guy laughed out loud as he came through the door. Her pupils dilated and her heart beat quickened. Her nostrils flared and her muscled tensed as her flight or fight instinct kicked in. Out of fear, Delilah's fists clenched, causing her to break her unlit cigarette. She watched the man who had just entered with some of his co-workers with caution and then took a deep breath as the small group walked up to the counter to order their coffee. Swallowing hard, Delilah turned back to Ashley and cleared her throat, her eyes diverting to the table top. She unclenched her fists and let her broken cigarette fall to the floor at her feet.

[Ashley Shaw]

This was interesting. Before he could answer, she was distracted by a man laughing. Did she know this one? He certainly didn’t. He wasn’t familiar with many people, although many people were familiar with him. Maybe his attitude was bland. That was known to get at peoples nerves, because it meant that the person wasn’t interesting. He smirked while she was still turned away.
Interesting. He could be very interesting, but he didn’t feel like being a nice guy. He didn’t want to keep a conversation going more than it had to, unless he was in a good mood, then he’d try and talk to May. She was the only one who could stir his heart from a stone-cold sleep, although he wasn’t always like this. Around the right people he was a burst of sunlight, that extra bird singing in the morning like a lark.
Unfortunately, he time of day and the events that surrounded him plus this woman, whoever she was, were affecting his mood. The lower she tried to bring him, the more void he would become. His answers would be simple, meaningless, and he’d give in to being trampled on emotionally and physically. Why? Because he couldn’t care less with the mood he was in.

Delilah was tense- very tense- like a guard dog responding to a sudden sharp noise, grabbing her attention.
German Sheppard was what he thought. Delilah reminded him of a noble, yet abused German Sheppard Dog. Violent, sometimes lazy, hard to control if in the wrong mood.
Delilah turned back, her eyes transfixed in the table top, sugar grains dotted on the surface and a dead flower, rotting almost beautifully in it’s clinical clean vase.
Delilah still didn’t seem to be relaxed completely.
Ashley’s eyes glinted with discovery. Delilah feared men. That, or she hated them, she didn’t like him, she tensed at the other man. Then again, they could know each other. The uncertainty was strong in the air. There had to be a reason, and if the reason was good enough, hell, he might even let her hurt him. That was, if she willing to.
Then, he remembered her question. No point in holding it off. He pushed the coffee cup to one side.

“I’m not diagnosed with anything,” Ashley said, “I trust Hammel’s psychiatrists as much as I trust myself.” hopefully she’d get the message that he trusted nobody. He was one half of his soul, so in essence, the other half should be out of control, which was what caused him to be like this.
“Although I can count how many mental illnesses it is most likely I have,” Ashley sat up straight, trying to find who Delilah had been struck by in means of her attention span. He couldn’t tell who it could have been. There were a good few people in here, a few men and women, it was impossible to spot who it could have been. They could be sat down already, but he wasn’t focused on his surroundings all to well.
Then he began to list.

“It is possible I have clinical depression -infrequent-, nightmare disorder or syndrome- whichever. Night Terror, Anxiety Disorder and Bi-Polar.” Ashley looked at Delilah, trying to figure out just why she reacted the way she did. Fear, or hate? Maybe insanity if he went that far.

[Delilah Pryce]

Very few things would ever break Delilah's fear and paranoia once it had taken hold of her, but something Ashly said certainly did. It wasn't his rambling about supposed mental disorders or his very apparent distrust of anyone around him. No, it was admittance of being a student from Hammel. Someone from the freak show was loose in town, how interesting. Sure, the freaks came out to play with the ants around town, but not as often as one might think. Mixing of the races was a dangerous gambit considering the fear which metas brought to the general weaker populace. Ashley and Delilah now shared something greater in common, they both had the circus in their social blood. Hammel's population was like an exclusive and private dysfunctional family. Yeah, Delilah couldn't give two pints of piss about the health and welfare of the pricks back at Hammel, but a bond was a bond none the less.

An odd, disturbing smile crossed Delilah's face, showing the other side of personality again. Her moods shifted as quickly as one could blink their eye. Ashley really didn't fit in with the other kids at Hammel, his appearance and manner of speech dictated this fact. He was a freak among freaks, the one snobby stuck up know-it-all who had his ass handed to him on a daily basis. That would explain the disgust in his voice and his seemingly broken spirit. No wonder Delilah's insults rolled off his back, he was so used to being treated in that manner. "Kith and kin," she muttered as her dark little smile grew wider, "I broke my cage in that circus side show a long time ago," she added, "Hammel," she added, clearing the sentence up. "Dear ol' Sean. Hell bent on saving the world one crippled soul at a time," she laughed a little.

Delilah was finding Ashley more and more interesting by the second. What sort of ability brought him to Hammel? More importantly however, what little skills do Ashely possess which Delilah could steal? Her forefinger began to tap the table top very slowly now. "A meta with a mental dilemma....Kind of a redundant phrase. Fire bugs have anger issues, techno geeks have privacy issues, telekinetics are just pricks, and those fucking mind readers think they rule the world," she said with disgust at the mention of mind readers. Looking Ashley over more carefully now, taking in every last detail she could just by looking, Delilah sucked in her bottom lip and began to chew on it. "Hmmmm...," she mused to herself as she let her bottom lip free from her teeth, "Little emo kid like you...or pussy as we used to call you guys, I'm gonna guess shadow manipulation," she said, taking a stab in the dark to Ashley's ability.

[Ashley Shaw]

Delilah should have given up on trying to insult him. She wouldn't be successful any time soon, in his condition, words went in one ear and out the other, not forgotten but not analysed. He didn't have time to deal with that crap. Actually, he had all the time he could possibly wish for, it was just he chose to spend his time pondering on certain aspects of his life. His meaning, other spiritual shenanigans like that. Fate, Fortune and other ridiculous theories of simple minded middle aged folk who had very little brain power.
How did the British out it?
Oh yeah. Shakespearian bullshit.
However, he wasn't into questioning something that was, in fact, unquestionable. His views and his takes on life had become more and more enhanced by the day, depending on what happened, and what he discovered or lost. He was losing a lot as of late, and he wasn't gaining anything. That counted from losing emotions to losing weight and losing his sanity if only just.

The only way of getting to Ashley was to insult his friends. And Delilah wasn't insulting his friends, but, unfortunately for her, she was stereotyping the one person he ever thought cared about what happened to him. It was hard to to lose control right there, even though he'd been calm and relaxed for the better part of this evening. Now his mind was shaking free from his chains of reality.
It was only what she said next that kept Kali's Kafe turning into a fallout zone.
He leaned back, he smiled with a hint of insanity and laughed, his eyes watering at her suggestion.
He couldn't have had a better laugh that day.

After a few seconds he sat back up right with a halt to any laughter, his eyes locking onto Delilah's. He studied her, attempting to guess. She was dark, dingy, very uncontrolled. It was like she had to copy others to get anywhere in life. He attitudes mimicked that of Antosha, and countless humans. But even so, he was sure she was a meta human.
Something to do with mimicry. The evidence was there and her movements showed it. Perhaps Ashley's evidence was legit, but it was leading down the right path. He was a sucker and pulling up false evidence but getting the right answer. It was a certain skill of his that he didn't know about.

"I am so sorry, Dels," he said with a smirk, "but I think you've got your parties muddled up. If anyone controlled shadows, it would be you, but I'm better that that. I think you have some kind of mimic ability." Ashley tilted his head to one side. He shouldn't do anything fancy then. She might be able to copy his abilities or maybe she'd start barking? The image made him almost burst out into laughter again, but like he said before, he was better than that. He would even pushed to say that he was better that Delilah. While she had more of a noticeable personality, his past was riddle with blood.
He dare call himself a murderer.

"My ability has a long leash, Dels If I didn't consciously fix my m ind on safety, we wouldn't be here right now," Ashley decided to give her a riddle. If she got it, she may still have to guess, because it didn't lead to the direct answer, but to the indirect. From the answer she would have to be excellent at foreign history. And she didn't look that good at history.
"Here's a clue; 25 years ago and 500 more, how long till I am habitable once more? What is my location?"

[Delilah Pryce]

Delilah arched a dark eyebrow as Ashley resorted to giving her a nickname. Yeah, she was calling him all sorts of unpleasant things, but for Delilah, fairness wasn't a word she acknowledged. There wasn't any real sort of rules in Delilah's world, just very obscure guidelines. She didn't like being made fun of or having anyone, especially men, picking on her in whatever why her mind might deem threatening. For her, it could be a small body movement or a laugh at the wrong time and her sanity switch would flip. Delilah was a junkyard dog, quick to snarl and even quicker to bite. The abuse she suffered at the hands of her father left her very bitter and extremely frightened. She lashed out at the world around her and everyone in it, especially men. Shortening her name was a place she reserved for a very select few and Ashely was not on that list. This alone was reason enough to slit his throat and let him bleed out on the floor at her feet. A slight twitch of her right eye would reveal the building anger inside of her. Ashley no doubt could lay waste to Delilah if given the proper motivation, but was he quick enough to do so before she struck him. Delilah had stolen so many skills over the years and a good number of them were fatal movements.

A small huff as Ashley pegged the area of Delilah's ability. How he guessed what she was became the new question in her mind. "Mimics are a rare breed and come in different varieties, but which one am I?," she said mockingly. There wasn't much use in hiding what she could do, Ashely would be dead before he could draw a breath against her anyway. His tone clearly showed she was wrong about his ability, but Delilah had not expected to be right about that anyway. It was a quick guess based on appearance and a very wrong one. Maybe he was a mind reader, he had that smug little attitude to fit the profile. It would explain how Ashley had almost guessed her ability. However, the riddle he gave just mucked everything up. Ashley wasn't making any sense now but then again, he hadn't been during this entire conversation. "Do I look like I signed up to be some contestant on a game show?," Delilah asked Ashley with annoyance in her voice. Ashley wasn't going to make this easy by any means. By his remarks, he thought highly of his powers. Ashley said he needed to concentrate to keep them in check, but that wasn't much of a hint to be honest. Whatever his ability, it seemed to be volatile.

With another huff, Delilah ran her fingers through her dark thick hair, "Fine genius, I'll play along for now," she said as her hand slid down her face and across her cheek. Delilah pondered the riddle, looking to the numbers first thing. Twenty-five years ago could be a reference to his age maybe, but the five hundred just left Delilah drawing a blank. The next part, something about a location wasn't making much sense either. Wherever or whatever it was, the place was clearly inhabitable. Why would that be? What made somewhere unfit to live? Drought? No.....but radiation maybe? Yeah, that made sense, but still didn't answer anything. "Radiation makes places inhabitable," she said with a very heavy sigh. "You a walking microwave or something?," she asked, sure that Ashley was going to have smart ass comment ready for her.

[Ashley Shaw]

probably end up dead without knowing what her power was. He was fine on the dieing bit, but he wanted to know what she could do.
He studied her, trying to pick up on anything that would give her away. He looked for information that didn’t exist, he seemed to get things right when he took false things and threw them in. So, she was a woman. He could say all kinds of nasty things in his head to try and find the answer, but he wasn’t like that, so he would avoid it. But one fact kept cropping up.
Women were physically weaker than men. So muscle. Something to do with muscles, how he connected her and that fact were beyond him, because it looked like she could kick him into oblivion, or at least somewhere close to that. If she could hear what he was thinking, she’d kill him. Sure, he was fast, but when in mid-thought it took a few seconds to be able to come back into reality and actually escape from someone like her.

“Mimics are rare breed? I’m the first of my kind,” with that, Ashley continued to guess. He should guess right, he didn’t want to look stupid. He had two options. Animal Mimicry or Muscle Mimicry. He thought hard, until his head ached, but in a short amount of time.
“I’m guessing Muscle Mimicry. Don’t ask me how I got that, I just did,” Ashley smiled to himself and wondered; did he get it right? He had a feeling he’d gotten it wrong, for whatever reason. He’d be chuffed to bits if he was right.

He laughed at her comment. He shook his head and leaned back on his chair, scratching the back of his hand, neatening up his pitch black hair.
“Not so much, your on the wrong end of the spectrum,” he said, referring to the Electromagnetic Spectrum for his own enjoyment. Maybe she’d get it, maybe she wouldn’t. it was all down to a matter of paying attention in classes.
“I’ll let you guess again, the location is used in one of my nicknames.”

[Delilah Pryce]

Ashley was a smart boy, meta or not and that meant danger. Those silent and always thinking types were usually more of a threat than the rough and outwardly violent types such as Delilah. Sure, Delilah could put a knife in Ashley's heart probably before he even knew she had stabbed him, but what exactly could Ashley do to Delilah if he put his mind to the task. A majority of Delilah's employers had been the silent, thinking sort. She was sure she was always just another piece on their chessboard of schemes. Removing a political or business rival by whatever orders her employers gave her were just a job for Delilah but for those said employers, they were another step in a very convoluted plan. Ashley would need to be dealt with some caution from here on out. His guess of her ability gave a hint of just how observant and calculating the boy was. For all Delilah knew, Ashley had been playing her since she walked in the shop.

Giving a false little smile, Delilah shrugged her small shoulders. She tried to play off the annoying anger which was starting to build up in the pit of her stomach. Ashley was making a fool of her and doing it quite nicely. He hadn't said any harsh words but was using etiquette to put Delilah in her place. This wasn't setting well, but in such a public place, Delilah needed to monitor herself. She couldn't very well just kick the table over and sling Ashley to the ground....Well...she could but it would draw all sorts of unwanted attention. The Pilot Ridge police force had no idea of who she was or if they did they weren't acting like it. She hadn't seen anyone following her about as of late....or at least not anyone who seemed like a cop or a fed. Maybe she had fell down the list of wanted fugitives.....that would be an ego crusher. "Lucky guess," she muttered under her breath. Delilah still had no certain idea of Ashley's meta ability, but a very vague general direction in which to run. This was all assuming he was telling the truth and not just stringing her along. Some meta-humans would purposely mis-identify their powers in public so as to make their opponents run in another direction when trying to find their weakness. It was as common and simple trick and someone with Ashley's apparent intelligence would use. None the less, Delilah didn't have many options at this point and so she would just have to go with the clues Ashley was feeding her.

Ashley didn't emit microwaves.....something similar but not quite. Delilah turned the thoughts over in her mind, her old science classes coming back to her. She never claimed to understand have the crap she learned in school but thanks to her memory, she remembered the text books she read over and over. Then, a colorful little graph popped up in Delilah's mind. She squinted her eyes as she often did when thinking about a specific thought. It helped her in clarifying the picture, not sure why, but it just did. She mentally moved herself down the spectrum....picking over this and that and finally the answer dawned on her. Gamma rays were on the other end of the electromagnetic spectrum from microwaves. "Chernobyl," she said casually, trying to hide her little smile a little. The name just fell out of her mouth and Delilah wasn't really sure why. The name was just there in her mind and then she was saying it.